Hide Your Love Away
by StaminaRose
Summary: Why hide it? Because otherwise youd have to admit it. Natsumi Kotaro Fiction.
1. Hide Yourself Or Try

Disclaimer: All characters and series belong to their original creators - I claim nothing.

Please enjoy.

* * *

The sun was hours past high noon, but few people would have been able to tell that without looking at the sky itself. Even here - deeper in the park than most people from the Academy bothered to go - the shade of the trees was just enough to make it bearable. The air outside was stuffy and humid, the light breeze that floated through the trees utter bliss when it caught you right.

If you were a sane person then you would have to be either inside or in a pool. Certainly you wouldn't be crouched behind a few bushes, parting the leaves in front of you with your hands just enough to see into the vaguely round clearing on the other side.

'_But I guess nothing I'm doing is sane…' _Natsumi thought to herself pathetically, guilt on her face though she knew there wasn't really anything to affix it to.

The young high school girl kneeled perfectly still, her limbs aching at her to stretch and the rest of her body screaming at her to escape to somewhere cool. Despite her best efforts at applying antiperspirant the sweat coated her body and her water bottle was already dry. Summer really was a killer this year. She was wearing nothing more than sandals, a t-shirt and a skirt - and she still felt like she was going to boil in her skin.

She stayed like this for several minutes, not daring to make a sound or a movement even though he had not yet arrived.

"Psst! Natsumi-chan!" The shy red-headed girl squealed and jumped upwards at the hushed whisper. Unfortunately pulling her head painfully through the bush before she whipped it to the side to face the intruding voice - face red and eyes wide - hands clutched on her sore scalp. "Hurry up, they'll be here in a few minutes."

Haruna crouched just a few metres away, smiling widely and gesturing for her to follow. Shocked and embarrassed the far more petite schoolgirl allowed herself to be led around the edge of the clearing, noticing the stealthy way in which her classmate moved and attempting to do the same.

As they rounded a thick squat tree Natsumi could only stare in complete confusion.

"Hey Natsumi." Yue said with a nod, barely looking up before returning to her juice box. "You've come to watch too?"

"Good afternoon Natsumi-chan." Ever polite, Nodoka attempted a small bow even though she was on the ground - evidently trying to keep stealthy just as she had been.

"H-Hi… everyone…" There wasn't really anything else she could think to say. She had been surprised when the Haruna had called her - but for this the word surprise was just too weak a word to describe this.

Between two large sun-blocking trees, just behind a rather tall and significantly less prickly bush than the one she had chosen, was a thick spacious blanket laid out across the grass. On top of it kneeled two of her classmates, a half open cooler filled with ice and drinks laid out beside them. There was even a picnic basket to go along, the perfect excuse in case someone caught them there, and probably full of delicious snacks if they didn't. Haruna smiled at her before sitting down next to Yue, gesturing to the open spot by Nodoka for her to do the same.

She did so, still totally unsure of what was going on.

"Why are you all here?"

"Cause its downwind, we don't need Kotaro-kun smelling us after all this effort." Haruna replied with a good natured expression.

"N-No… I mean-"

"She's just playing with you." Yue interrupted. "We're all here for the same reason you are probably."

"Oh…" Natsumi felt a little better - and a lot less guilty - knowing someone else was doing this too.

"Nodoka?" Haruna asked suddenly, turning to the girl with her book open on her lap. "They coming soon?"

"Uh-huh. Any minute now..."

"Oh… that's your magic artefact thing isn't it?" Natsumi asked with interest. "Kota-kun said it was an amazing one…" She got a nod in return, Nodoka's wide if bashful smile an indicator of how much she was proud of her special power.

"It reads people's thoughts Natsumi-chan." Haruna winked at her conspiratorially, a wink that had been long practiced to make people blush. "Only reason Nodoka got it is because she's too sweet and innocent to abuse it."

"Oh…"

"Course, as long as Nodoka-chan's around people who aren't can use it too." Paru let out a stifled giggle and Natsumi tried to hide her discomfort by drinking eagerly from a bottle of water - having ignored the unusual juice variations that had somehow been acquired - such oddities as peppermint apple or bubblegum orange - that weren't to her taste. "Though sometimes I don't need to…" Haruna continued, giving her a knowing look and a smile that could only be described as 'hungry'.

"W-What?" Shameful, the red-head stuttered under Paru's humiliating stare.

"I'm just saying… you're not here for Negi-kun like these girls are you?"

Natsumi instantly went redder than the tomato juice Yue was suckling. "I-I…" She stopped and took a breath, willing the blood to stop collecting in her face. "I just came to keep an eye on Kotaro-kun…" She replied, almost whispering, completely unable to look her classmate in the eye. "H-He works hard… so I've gotta make sure he's okay…"

It wasnt a convincing statement, yet that was probably for the best anyway. Although Natsumi didn't realise it a tremendous tension had suddenly been lifted as both Nodoka and Yue realised that they weren't dealing with yet another rival in love - that in fact they had one of the few in their class that they didn't have to worry about. It was bad enough for the pair that they were working against one another, adding in a dozen other women – most of which were far better endowed then they were – and their situation was fast becoming a nightmare. The love triangle had long passed them by, now it had become something more closely resembling a broken etch-a-sketch.

"Leave her alone Paru." Yue spoke up, relief flooding through Natsumi as she realised there was someone there to stop Haruna digging any deeper. Eager to extend her own personal olive branch of peace, Nodoka held out a large home-made cookie from her picnic basket, giving it to the newcomer with a friendly smile whilst placing her hand on the other girl's shoulder to try and make her feel at ease. Admittedly the gesture was a little awkward on her part, but Natsumi still appreciated it.

"Thank you Yue-chan, Honya-chan." The freckled schoolgirl smiled back as widely as she could to the two, making a note to try and make it up to them later.

"Oh? On her side a bit more now that you know she's not competition you two?" Paru smirked at the group, knowing precisely what was going on in their heads.

It shouldn't be possible to say something silently with the same expression you always use, but Yue managed it. Even to Natsumi there was an overwhelming undercurrent of 'don't argue with me right now' in the look she gave.

"Alright alright, I'm really just here for drawing ideas anyway." The manga lover quickly backed off - picking up her sketchbook from the floor and twirling a pencil between her fingers. "Nodoka, any sign of-"

"Shh!" Nodoka hushed her and nodded, sending the group into silence just as their prey arrived. Through four tiny gaps in the bush, each girl watched intently.

"It's a little too hot right now isn't it Kotaro-kun?" The voice all but whined as Negi walked through into their usual clearing. Having dressed for sun and training instead of teaching, the young Mage wore some baggy shorts and a t-shirt with little else instead of his usual suit, trainers instead of leather shoes. It was clear enough from the scratches and dirt on him that he and Kotaro had already started their sparring, the fact he seemed ready to fall down told the pseudo-voyeurs that he had probably expended most of his magic too.

"You're just tired. It was hotter at noon!" A second figure emerged into the clear light of the clearing with a wide grin on his face and two prominent canine ears nestled amongst his black hair. He also dressed a little differently, wearing nothing more than a pair of long black pants - a hole cut in them to allow the tail out - and a white tank top in the heat. Unlike the young teacher his own feet were bare on the grass, allowing a keen observer to see the long pointed claws that matched the ones on his hands. "Besides. You can't skip on a training session just cause the sun is out."

"Yes, I suppose your right." His rival agreed. "After this I can have a nice long rest too."

"Got that right." Kotaro smiled widely, his grin showing off a set of just a little bit too sharp teeth. "So, normal rules apply. Plain ol' fist fight, limit to half Magic or Ki behind your strength, no projectiles or other crap."

"Understood."

"Oh yeah," The Hanyou quickly removed his tank top in a flash and sent it flying randomly into the bushes – just a few metres to the left of Natsumi's face. "Shirts off, like real men."

Negi nodded with a serious smile to him, removing his own shirt and setting it on the ground some distance away before moving back and dropping into a fighting position.

Behind the bushes three out of the four girls blushed at the two boys - even Yue with her usually cool persona couldn't help it. The fourth smirked and began drawing.

For Nodoka and Yue, seeing Negi wearing anything less than a suit was rare. Even in the baths it wasn't common. He usually spent his entire time trying to hide himself, and though this was rarely successful going close enough to look at him would mean letting him see them - something neither of the two were bold enough to do. Unless perhaps absolutely no one else was around, in which case even Nodoka could consider it within some scandalous half-dazed daydreams. But for as long as the rest of their class existed and especially Asuna on top of them all, that particular scenario wasn't going to occur any time soon.

Surprisingly, even though he was only ten he didn't look bad at all, a slim athletic body the result of his many training sessions. It wasn't hard to imagine what he would be looking like once he grew up a bit. Especially since they had already seen that grown up – through the use of some magical medicines - and found that he could make their knees weak by just winking. No wonder Ako had fallen in love with 'Nagi' so badly.

Needless to say, Nodoka 'eeped' and looked down at her knees on reflex, before remembering that he couldn't actually see her and raising her burning face back to watch. Yue on the other hand hadn't blinked for minutes – concentrating on taking in everything - though her face was almost as scarlet as her best friend's.

Both the librarians jumped in shock when Natsumi suddenly remembered she needed to breath and gasped sharply to get some air. She ignored their stares completely, sweating all over and by far the worst of them blush-wise. Even Nodoka would have struggled to get that colour.

Trying to figure out what could have caused it, as one they turned and looked at Kotaro instead.

"Wow… that's actually impressive…" Haruna thought aloud, getting nods all round.

"It's probably a Hanyou thing…" Yue replied, making a mental note to check her artefact later to see what it had on the subject.

It shouldn't be possible to look so masculine at such a young age, but he had managed it and more. For whatever reason Kotaro had muscles on him that weren't usually even seen until teen years. Whilst none could be accurately called huge – for that just wasn't his body structure - the very definition and tone in him gave off a look of compacted power. A look that they knew from experience he could back up. The illusion was brief but strong - for a few seconds he could have just been a shrunk down boy their own age. A boy who trained as a boxer.

It didn't help that even at his young time of life he had apparently been able to get himself some serious looking scars in various places. One of which on his back that was disturbingly long. Of course Negi had a few scars himself, but most of his were very light and small - kept by choice rather than any need and gained in training for the most part. Kotaro's seemed more like he'd taken them in real life, though no doubt he'd have chosen to keep them all even if someone offered to heal.

_'He's probably proud of them.' _Natsumi guessed, thinking it fit his personality, wondering to herself how new some of them were. Sometimes her roommate did wander away for a day or two, even a week if he was training with Kaede. Perhaps he came back with more than just experience.

Of course, possibly the very worst thing was that Kotaro had neglected a belt and now his baggy trousers were slipping down to expose a little bit more than usual - even the top of a muscled buttock was coming into view.

"Heh… Negi pulls on those a bit too hard and we'll get to see something really interesting…" Paru whispered to them all, causing wide eyes and spluttering all round.

"Go!" Negi announced suddenly with a competitive smile. Nothing else was needed - immediately the two males were at it. They began running against each other at full speed, closing the distance between them in seconds and each starting with a punch to the chest of their opponent. Both hits connected but there was an obvious strength difference in unarmed fighting at least, the Youkai only staggered backwards for a second before he recovered, whilst Negi was left coughing as he tried to get back to his stance. Only Yue realised the problem – as per the rules Negi had taken down his magic barrier for the fight. Even if they were both using only half the remaining Ki or Magic they had left those punches were still far more powerful than the ones any normal person could throw.

Instead of letting Kotaro take the advantage however the young Mage charged again and hit him with a uppercut to the chin instead, following up with a miss that could have very easily been a powerful strike to the windpipe.

Their fight continued this fiercely for another quarter hour at least, covering both boys with bruises and the occasional cut. Throughout Nodoka and Yue admired Negi's serious but careful expression, his silent stony look that he only seemed to wear whilst he fought that had just a sprinkling of competition in it. Meanwhile, Natsumi watched Kotaro's succession of pleased expressions throughout. His smirks when he attacked, his laughs when he got hit, the general looks and sounds of excitement that he made whenever he dabbled in violence.

'_He's a little scary when he's like this…' _She conceded to herself. Nevertheless, Natsumi also found it incredibly... _cool_. She was impressed by how confident he was, by how fearless he seemed. Not to mention how he seemed to treat pain almost like it was just a vague inconvenience - something that would go away if he didn't pay attention. That was just incredible.

Eventually both boys became exhausted and the fight was reduced from a fast action punch-up to a kind of wrestling, both combatants too tired to throw any hits any more and simply trying to grapple one another on the floor. Paru quickly found finding she couldn't draw fast enough as the two semi-naked boys rolled on the grass, each struggling to get the upper hand.

In fact, even the notoriously hard to embarrass geek girl was a little flushed at this point. Meanwhile the other members of their little voyeur group were fighting off nosebleeds. Natsumi smiled despite herself when she saw Yue - without even taking her gaze away - steady Nodoka on her shoulder as the fainting-prone shy girl seemed to be getting unsteady and weak.

'_Wow, they really are best friends. Kind of a weird situation to help each other in though…' _The young actress thought. _'I know I wouldn't be doing this if Chizuru-chan wasn't away at her parents.' _Natsumi went wide-eyed and shook her head to clear her thoughts. _'No, I don't need to be guilty. I'm not doing anything wrong! I'm just watching Kotaro-kun train!'_ Of course, it was easy telling herself that, but would her roommate even believe it if she ever found out? _'Not a chance, not if she found out he didn't know I was here!'_ Despite being her best friend, Chizuru frightened the smaller girl sometimes. Natsumi knew she slept very deeply. There was always the chance that one day her friend would see what _did _happen when you tried to put a spring onion up there.

"Alright, I think that's enough to prove I'm the better man here." Kotaro laughed as he released Negi from a grip.

"Which is why I usually win?" Negi returned.

"Ehh?" He got a dangerous look in return from the Hanyou, who smiled in that specifically predatory way that completely didn't make Natsumi squeak under her breath in any way whatsoever. "You're lucky I was so nice to you today. I barely used my claws at all."

Negi looked down at the multiple cuts that had been inflicted on him. All of them were pretty light, but they were still bleeding. "Very merciful." He said sarcastically.

"Ah shut ya whining." Rummaging in the pocket of his trousers, Kotaro brought out a cheap looking steel hip-flask and offered it to him. "Want some?"

"You drink?" Negi asked, so surprised he had actually taken a step back.

"Booze?" Natsumi almost shouted it from behind the bushes but managed to subdue it to a hushed whisper, her mouth open wide.

"Its more for the wounds idiot." The dog boy told him with a smirk, dabbing some on his hands before pressing it to the cuts he had sustained. Most of them were actually from ranged combat earlier, in which he had come off a lot more damaged. He hissed as he felt the burn on the wounds. "I don't really need my wounds dressing, even mutt Youkai like me heal as fast as the full ones. I just dab some of this stuff on usually and it lets my body do its stuff faster."

His roommate sighed her relief, glad it was just for medical use. For a moment she had thought Kotaro might be some kind of delinquent!

"That probably explains the scars you know" Negi pointed out. "You should get a healer."

Kotaro laughed. "Yeah, well. I like them. I wouldn't wanna come to my old age and have nothing to show for it. Sure you don't want some to put on?"

"I'm sure. I can smell it from here, if Asuna-san found me smelling of alcohol she'd have my neck." He remarked, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

Another laugh. "Same with Chizuru-nee-chan." _'More like his butt…' _Natsumi corrected in her head darkly. "But she's away doing something right now, so I can go back to my old habit's a little." Despite his earlier words, Kotaro took a stiff gulp from the flask and immediately recoiled with a gasp and a pained shake of the head, along with some pained coughing for good measure.

"How strong is that?" Negi asked with an ill face. "In fact, _what_ is that?" Alright, so he wasn't intimately familiar with different drinks, but he was sure a good alcoholic beverage wasn't supposed to make ones eyes water. Especially when you were standing over a metre away from the person drinking it.

"I don't know… it might be a wood polish or something." Kotaro didn't usually drink this sort of thing unless he was seriously hurt and needed a cheap anaesthetic, but Negi's questions had quickly made him curious – a fact his tongue regretted.

"You'll poison your liver!"

"Hanyou, remember?" The half-nude dog demon reminded him. "As long as I live long enough to let it, pretty much anything will heal – even an arm if I can attach it right. And anything heals in about a month."

"Wow." Negi said in genuine awe. "I wish I had that."

"Yeah well, you wouldn't be able to be a teacher if ya did." The Hanyou pointed out, gesturing to the proud canine ears that poked out from his scalp.

"I guess you're right…"

The two boys semi-limped a short distance away, sitting against the base of a tree to rest for a while, making idle conversation with one another whilst the girls sighed and did the same on their blanket.

"Its terrible when you discover secrets about the ones you care about, isn't it?" Paru told the redhead in a faux-caring voice. Natsumi fumed silently, debating whether or not to burst out of the bushes and discipline him. But then what could she possibly say? She wasn't Chizuru, and she didn't have her talent for intimidation. Very likely Kotaro would just laugh at her.

"Well its not as if its dangerous for him." Yue pointed out flatly, making her way through yet another juice box. Already her artefact was open at a page on Canine Hanyou - information splayed out in front of her in panels as she read. "According to this, he's right. A half demon does have superior healing abilities to normal humans, liver included."

"That's no excuse…" Natsumi mumbled.

"Huh… says here that all male Inu-Youkai have raised testosterone levels from birth." Haruna pointed out.

"Yeah, that's probably why he has more muscles than you'd expect. Explains why he's so kill-crazy too." Yue responded with a frown, before remembering Natsumi was present.

"Kota-kun isn't kill-crazy!" The petite actress protested indignantly. Alright, so she knew full well the small boy she lived with was part demon, and seemingly the dominant part too. She also knew he enjoyed fighting more than anything else in his life. And until coming to live with them had worked as something close to a mercenary. But that didn't mean anything, right? "…is he?" She was forced to add onto the end.

"Well… he is a little bit Natsumi-chan…" Nodoka spoke up timidly. "But he is a warrior… he's supposed to be like that, right?"

"...I guess..." The red-head conceded with a sigh, depressed. "My roommate's a violent, foul mouthed booze loving demon..." She whined quietly.

"Well at least he's interesting." Haruna pointed out with a laugh. "Hey Yue, can ya get anything up on that thing about mating rituals?" Paru giggled, delighting in seeing Murakami puff up her cheeks and blush in embarrassment.

Handily for Haruna, the magical book seemed to pay attention and automatically changed to the right page, the words glowing as they floated above the book which was more like a high-tech laptop than a dusty old tome.

They stared - all but one felt another nosebleed coming on.

After her mind had taken its time processing the images and assuring her that _yes this is indeed what you're seeing_, Yue slammed it shut.

"Did your book just show-" Paru began.

"Maybe next time you give my artefact a command, be specific on what specifically about mating rituals you want." Yue reprimanded with a glare.

"Sorry, I wanted text." The author apologised genuinely. "You okay Honya? I didn't… like… break your innocence or something did I?"

"I-I'll be fine…" In fact the timid girl looked ready to collapse. Rapidly blood was draining from her brain into her skin, a red glow coating her literally from top to bottom.

Slowly, whilst Paru was occupied trying to keep her friend from fainting, Natsumi stood up stealthily and tried to wander off. If she went now she could go without questions asked, just get back to her room before Kotaro managed to do it, and ask him if he had enjoyed himself as usual. It might have worked too if manners hadn't insisted she mumbled a small thank you for the food and drink she had been offered.

"You're not going anywhere Natsu-chan." Haruna told her immediately, pulling her back down to the blanket by her wrist. The freckled girl pulled at her classmate's hand in vain before accepting her fate and just hoping for mercy.

"What do you want Paru?" She sighed at her.

"She probably wants you to admit you've got a crush to her." Yue explained as bluntly as ever.

"Well I do get off on embarrassment..." The Mangaka admitted with a twinkle in her eyes.

"I don't have a crush on Kotaro-kun!" Natsumi wished she could shout right now, but she was restricted to the loudest whisper she could get to instead.

"Oh? Did we say who it was on?" Paru crooned at her.

"I don't have a crush on him…" The red-head repeated a little quieter.

"Look, Nodoka has a book that reads minds. We could find out if we want." Haruna pointed out.

Wide almost tearful eyes looked at her, and Haruna swore she could see the girl's lower lip wobble. No one needed to see something that adorably pathetic.

"Paru! Don't be cruel!" Nodoka told her, genuinely surprised that her friend could act like that with her artefact. "E-Even if Natsumi did have some feelings for him, forcing wont help her…"She said diplomatically.

"…well they do say denial isn't healthy either." Yue mumbled, to the general surprise of the people around her. It was the most reserved Natsumi had ever heard the confident - occasionally insulting - girl speak. But then, even she was aware that Yue had almost had some kind of mental break down in guilt over her recent crush. The fact that she and Nodoka could stay best friends and rivals in love at the same time was just a testament to how much they cared about one another.

"Well, you know Natsumi-chan. If Kotaro feels anything, we could use that power to find out what he truly thinks of you." The Mangaka pointed out.

"Y-You could?" The petite girl asked.

"Do you want me to?" Nodoka asked gently.

Natsumi stayed silent for a few minutes, looking down at her knees and fidgeting. She felt their eyes on her, the sensation hot and prickly for the flustered girl as she weighed up the options. Eventually however she looked up to stare Nodoka straight in the eyes, trusting eye contact sealing the deal. Gingerly, she nodded.

"Alright." Haruna continued for her friend. "All ya need to do is ask Kotaro-kun something to do with you and love, and Honya can do the rest."

"Wait, do what?"

Without waiting for a reply, Paru stood up and leaned over their camouflage bush, waving to the two surprised young boys with a wide welcoming smile. "Oi! Kotaro! Natsumi has something to ask you! Get over here!"

It took the combined strengths of Paru, Yue and Nodoka just to keep their new friend from crawling away on her hands and knees, and even then her nails had dug into the soil as they pulled her back.

"Just relax." Yue told her confidently, looking her in the eye with a nod. "Just relax and concentrate. The worst is over after you've done it."

"But that means I still have to do the worst!" She protested, actual tears forming in her eyes.

"Natsumi-nee-chan?"

She squealed at the sound of her name being said, and slowly turned around. Suddenly the other girls became very interested in other things, or at least seemed to be. Nodoka began reading her artefact, encased as it was in a normal fantasy book. Paru began doodling in her notebook, making the occasional glance upwards to see what was going on. Meanwhile Yue walked out towards Negi and begun talking to him, making sure to keep him out of the way.

Natsumi looked up. Kotaro leaned over the bush, pressing it's leaves down under his body as he looked at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"J-Just relaxing… um…. I saw you sparring." She mumbled out. "Y-You were really good!" It was an awkward compliment on her end. Her volume control seemed to have died and she could barely suppress the stutter she was developing. Along with her cherry red colour, Natsumi was beginning to realise what it was like to be Nodoka. Awkwardness seemed to be pouring from every atom of her being.

"Thanks!" If he noticed her unusual behaviour he didn't notice, choosing instead only to smile at her. "Oh yeah. What did you want to ask?"

Natsumi tried, she really really did. But as many times as she ran different words through her mind she couldn't match them up right.

"Umm… I…" She trailed off.

"Yah?"

"Do you…um… think that…"

"Yah?" Kotaro frowned a little. Why was she acting so strange this time?

Natsumi looked at his impatient face and felt herself heating up, scrunching her eyes closed in shame. At that moment it felt to her like she had never been more humiliated than she was right now, even though practically nothing was happening to her. Certainly no one was laughing at her or poking fun. Yet despite the queasy feeling in her stomach and her inexplicable terror the timid girl knew she had to try again. Taking a few calming breaths she steadied her courage. Nothing could stop her, she would just have to come out with it and that would be that. She would find out exactly what he thought of her.

'_After three. Three... two... one... now!'_

The shy actress raised her head to him, catching his confused look, taking another deep inhale of air, looking him straight in the eyes and asking:

"Do you want to go to the baths with me before dinner!"

"Huh?"

"Huh?" Natsumi said the exact same thing he did, her expression showing shock and confusion before she hid it. The highschooler had fully meant to say… something else then. She hadn't just lacked the courage though, it seemed like her body had literally gone against her own orders - just picking any old thing to fill the blank space. "I mean… um... I mean I'm all sweaty from being in the sun all day, and you probably are too." It came out far more easily than she expected. Not for the first time in her life she thanked her training in drama club for helping her along, giving her practice in faking expressions, voices and making things up. "I thought we could go for a nice bath, then I could fix you up a good meal when we got home?" Had it not been such a dire situation the amateur actress would have been proud of her ad-libs – usually she sucked at improvising lines. But whether it was her convincing act or his complete density it worked on him all the same – he didn't even see through her phony smile, the one she had plastered over an expression of shame to the point of sickliness.

"Wow, that sounds great Natsumi-chan. Good idea!" He smiled at her - licking his lips - and that certainly _did _make her smile. A genuine one. He turned back from the bush he was leaning over, seeing Negi talking to Yue. "Hey Negi! You gonna come for a bath with me and Natsumi-nee-chan? Or are ya going later on? Cause you stink of sweat ya know." He laughed, not actually joking but well aware he stank too. Pulling his tank top on over his head helped a little, but pretty soon the sweat would just soak through that as well.

"Hmm… I don't really want to but I guess I better have one…" He replied awkwardly as he found his own shirt and pulled it back on. Negi was not really a fond of the baths he had been taking since he had arrived in Japan, but that was less to do with the idea of cleanliness and more to do with the public nudity that it seemed to entail here. On the few occasions where he had been able to get into an all male bath with Kotaro or others he had quite enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere.

"So you coming then or what?"

"I think Asuna-san would rather I went with her…" He sighed, slumping where he stood like a puppet with it's strings cut.

"She's got you whipped!" Kotaro laughed.

Natsumi thought about mentioning how her best friend and roommate seemed to be doing a fantastic job of domesticating him, but decided against it. That would do nothing more than hurt his pride, something he seemed to hold in higher value than pretty much everything around him.

Haruna was just about to volunteer to go along with them when she felt Nodoka's hand on hers, as the girl herself slowly shook her head.

"We can go later," She whispered with a wide smile. "I think it'd be better to let them go by themselves right now."

Haruna sighed and shrugged, but after a little thought agreed. Maybe some time alone with one another would help move this along - even if she did really want to watch. Nevertheless, the voluptuous Mangaka couldn't help leaning over to the redhead she was torturing and whispering in her ear.

"This isn't over you know Natsumi-chan, not by a long shot." She blew her ear to make the littler girl jump before standing. "Come on Yue, Nodoka, we better get going. See ya later you guys."

"Have a good evening Haruna-san." Negi replied politely. "And for everyone else too."

"See ya Haruna-nee-chan, everyone." Kotaro said himself as a chorus of farewells erupted, almost enough to stop him noticing that his roommate had only mumbled her own.

"You okay Natsumi-nee-chan?" He asked, cocking his head.

She turned and smiled at him as best as she could.

"L-Lets just go for that bath… I think I really need to relax…"

He nodded and smiled, not really understanding what had made her stressed but at the same time not needing to. Instead he led the way back to their room in the dormitories to get their bathing things.

* * *

Ive gotta be honest I'm really not sure exactly what age Kotaro is – frankly I doubt he is either. He seems to act like Negi is roughly his own age (10) but evidence seems to point to him being a little older. 1) Natsumi mentions he looks like a first year middle school boy and in Japan that means he'd be about 12 or so. 2) He apparently is enrolled as a first year middle school student. 3) He's definitely slightly taller than Negi – in most of the scenes and he comments to that effect.

So in the end, if you want the ages for this fiction i'd say that Kotaro is at the very least phsyically 12. Natsumi approximatly is 15, as is Chizuru and most of their class (Ghosts, Vampires, Robots and whatever the hell Zazie Rainyday is all mix up the average age).


	2. Hide Your Body Or Dont

This chapter is much shorter than my original plan intended it to be (bout five thousand instead of an intended six thousand), for complicated reasons. At its most basic, I originally planned to have a lot more for this chapter, but decided it didn't make sense here and would work better later. They delay has mostly been me trying to work the bloody thing in before I finally decided to just cut it. Happily its still written and saved so that'll shave off time from the chapter it does eventually appear in.

* * *

It was difficult for Natsumi to think up a good excuse not to go into the changing rooms with him, but she eventually settled on claiming she'd forgotten her favourite soap before taking a very slow paced trip back to her room. Hopefully by the time she got back he would have already left for the other room, leaving her to undress in privacy.

Of course, there had always been the option of telling him that she was uncomfortable, but the idea of doing that just made her feel like a childish under-confident little girl.

She didn't even bother entering their dorm room, instead just standing outside awkwardly as she counted to two hundred, before starting back again. An empty changing area was her reward when she got back and it wasn't long before the redhead was peeling off the horrible sweat soaked clothes she'd been wearing all day. She was glad that she had at least had the foresight to bring a dressing gown so she didn't have to dress in the same dirty clothes she had come in.

Out of the corner of her eye Natsumi saw that Kotaro's own things had just been thrown randomly around the room. Pausing midway through disrobing - wearing panties but little else - she picked them up and was looking for somewhere to place them when she stopped to examine them.

His own shirt was drenched in sweat just like hers was, he had probably used it to wipe the stuff off of himself after he had undressed, but it was surprising to her the difference between it and her own shirt.

Technically they were both just smelly damp cotton. Yet looking at her own top she felt disgust, glad to be rid of it and recoiling at the memory at the short time she'd spent being hot and sticky inside of it. Looking at his in her hands she felt none of that.

It should have smelt terrible. Instead she couldn't say she minded his scent, not now on his clothes and certainly not when she had been standing near him in the park. Recalling the time Chizuru had joked about her smelling his shirts Natsumi decided not to read into the reasons why the smell of his sweat didn't seem to bother her and just continued undressing.

Picking up her bathing things from its basket the petite girl wrapped herself in the longest towel she had to hand – covering her body from neck to knee. For her at least nudity around other girls was bad enough, let alone letting a boy see her. Really she only ever felt comfortable around other people with her body shape - like Ako, Yue, Nodoka, the twins etc. Even though Chizuru had seen her naked plenty of times, just being around her when unclothed usually made the redhead feel at the very least mildly uncomfortable. Her best friend was supposed to be about the same age as her - she was a few months older - but compared to her Natsumi felt like nothing more than a little kid standing next to an adult.

After all, who would be interested in a girl when there was a real woman at hand?

"Hey Natsumi-chan, I got us some seats and water already." Kotaro turned and greeted her as she walked through into the baths, giving her a wide smile. Immediately Natsumi was thankful he was sitting down facing away from her. Unlike her he had no problems with nudity in the slightest even if he was the only one naked - and certainly not in the baths where everyone was.

The shy teenager almost choked as she saw he had placed her stool and bucket right next to his, where she would need to wash, next to him. Without her towel on.

The thought came to her mind that at the same time neither would he – immediately her skin flushed in response.

Blushing so much that even the top of her chest was turning red the embarrassed girl sat down beside him, taking glances to her right to ensure he wasn't looking at her. Whether it was disinterest in women at his young age or chivalrous intent he didn't even look in her direction when she sat down. When he turned to speak, Natsumi noticed his eyes stayed firmly above her chest even though she hadn't even taken her towel off yet.

"We don't usually bathe together do we Natsumi-neechan?"

"N-No… usually its Chizuru-chan who drags you into the baths…" She replied in a voice that came dangerously close to being little more than a squeak, trying to shake her head free of the embarrassing blush. "A-Actually, you don't seem to mind it too much right now, why do you struggle with her?" She asked curiously.

"Course I like baths idiot," He answered her indignantly. "I just don't like it when Chizu-neechan wants to give them to me." Oh yeah… when Natsumi thought about it, any time she got to see Kotaro washing or soaking himself he seemed to be enjoying the relaxing time a great deal more than Negi seemed to. It was only when Chizuru dragged him off where he'd struggle - which would invariably fail because he was too worried about hurting her to use full strength to break her grasp.

That fact always made her smile, that Kotaro could be pushed into seemingly anything by her best friend just showed how good a person he was. Of course the redhead knew for a fact that if Kotaro wanted he could do whatever he liked with his vaguely maternal tormentor - snap her in half, hold her head underwater, do what _he_ wanted to do with a leek to _her_ for a change. That last bit had been the basis for a pretty strange dream of hers actually - a pretty disturbing and X-Rated dream. One that had woken her in a start and made her blush tomato-red for the next week whenever she saw Chizuru, Kotaro or one of the offending vegetables.

'_Isn't that just the perfect picture of my mind though?' _She asked herself in her head pathetically. _'I have a dream about a boy I um... like a little, doing… naughty things with someone - and the someone isn't me."_

He was part demon, capable of punching through a tree like it was paper. Hell, in one of his training sessions she had once seen him head-butt a boulder and leave the surface shattered - and that wasn't even the limit of his strength. She wasn't totally familiar with his abilities, but he also had spells and strange magics and mysterious Youkai powers that she couldn't even dream about! Yet he let Chizuru pressure him into things, but was it just because he didn't want to hurt her in resisting? Because he just accepted she was the boss? No, that didn't sound right. Certainly there were power struggles there which she usually came out on top off, but he would never accept she was truly in charge. Then did he feel something for her?

Natsumi's eyes flew open and she almost choked on her own tongue. That was a definite possibility - she often saw him blush around her sometimes, something she rarely saw him doing otherwise. After all what sort of person would want their crush having a bath with them. Probably only a pervert.

Realization dawning on her, the freckled schoolgirl made an expression of utter mental defeat before bringing her palm to her forehead, sighing. Everything she was doing was wrong to the highest degree - but she had to know.

"Kota-kun, why is it you don't like Chizuru-neechan giving you baths?" Her entire body was tense now, waiting for his answer with bated breath. Throughout however she was careful to make sure she kept her own eyes up just as he had for her, wanting to at the very least return his courtesy.

He looked up from washing his tail and scratched his head, thankfully without turning too much of his nude body towards her.

"Well, y'know… she's always touching me." He answered awkwardly, and Natsumi noticed his own face had gone red. It took a while for the full force of what he had said to sink in, whereupon it hit her like a brick to the face. Confused and admittedly terrified at what he had just said the poor fifteen year old didn't know what to think. Of course she ended up recalling their baths together. Chizuru had always had a case of wandering hands to some extent… but Natsumi had always just brushed it off because they were both girls. Perhaps that wasn't just kept to close friends, but also to people she was meant to be looking after?

"W-Where does she touch you??" She managed to say – barely..

"Um... Everywhere I guess." Oblivious to her suspicions but still quite red Kotaro began untying his almost ever present ponytail - allowing his long black mane to spread out over his back. At any other moment Natsumi might have remarked to herself how cool he looked with such long hair like that, but now was not the time. "And then sometimes she wants me to touch her as well…" He continued. "I'm just not used to the stuff she does," He had stopped washing now, just sitting with his head in his hands and a frown on his face. "And its not like she's ever given me any time to adjust to it."

"Whaa???" Natsumi sat on her stool, still quite firmly wrapped up in her towel - her eyes twitching and her mouth open wide. She couldn't have gotten a more shocked expression if she had tried. What the hell was Chizuru doing to their guest?? Was this why she had wanted him to stay with them? To… grope him? Worse?? Oh sure, half the things the other girls tried to do to Negi probably counted as borderline molestation but that was different. In those cases Asuna was always there with him to help beat them off and besides which, none of those girls held anywhere near the same hold over Negi as Chizuru did over Kotaro.

He felt indebted to her, guilty about hurting her even once the slightest bit. That was a powerful thing to have if you were an abuser.

Ayaka always waited for Negi to bathe, and she herself always washed by herself before meeting up with her two other room-mates to soak – too embarrassed to be nude near them out of the water. Whatever happened in the time between her leaving and coming back she had no idea, and that was now scaring her.

"S-She touches you in the baths?"

"Yeah."

"And she makes you do it to her?"

Another yes was forthcoming, but this time Kotaro looked even more awkward. Almost ashamed – a look that made Natsumi's stomach turn.

"K-Kotaro-kun..." She stuttered, terrified to ask. "J-Just tell me, very carefully, exactly how Chizuru-neechan and you touch one another."

He saw the seriousness in her eyes, along with stress, as her eyes glued to his and wouldn't let go. She on the other hand found only embarrassment and confusion in his.

"Well sometimes we use a wash cloth, but most of the time she rubs on the soaps and stuff with her bare hands." He explained. "And then she wants me to do it to her!!"

Most guys would have killed to perform that task, he said it like it was the most horrifying thing in the world.

"You mean, she washes you?" Natsumi asked very - _very_ - quietly.

"Well yeah." The Hanyou answered, beginning to suspect at some point down the line he'd made a terrible mistake. Because right now he was getting the darkest expression his friend had ever given him.

"And sometimes makes you wash her back?" The young girl continued in the same voice.

Kotaro nodded. "Are you alright Natsumi-chan?"

"No I am not alright!!!" Rare but fiery temper flaring the redhead struck him across the forehead with her fist.

Even if Kotaro had been a normal boy it wouldn't have hurt very much - Natsumi was too small and slim to put any power behind her strike – but being attacked so suddenly with his guard down surprised the Hanyou enough to unbalance him. As he fell backwards over his stool the dog boy yelped when his head met the hard stone floor with a loud crack.

Instantly she was upon him.

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!!" Natsumi shouted, straddling his stomach and pounding on his bare chest with her fists. "I thought my best friend was some sort of molesting weirdo pedophile!!" Quickly the half-breed found himself in a conundrum, wanting nothing more than to cradle his aching brain but needing both hands just to stop the rapid flurry of stinging hits he was getting – some of those hits were nail scratches and they smarted!

"Natsumi-chan! Get off of me!!" He looked up to see his friend biting her lip and glaring down at him in rage – a scarlet face from a mixture of humiliation and pure rage. Kotaro could have thrown her away from him in an instant, but if he had gotten such a bad hit to the brain just from falling over he didn't want to see what she could get from being thrown off by a demon. All in all, he was just thankful she hadn't actually begun washing yet - the towel still firmly wrapped firmly around her slim body doing a great job of protecting her decency.

After a few more punches, scratches and a fair share of slaps she calmed down enough to stop attacking him, sitting on his stomach with her arms folded across her chest and a furious pout on her expression. Never before had anger been so cute – that much he was forced to admit even if it was only in the back of his mind.

"What the hell was all that for?!?" He shouted angrily, noting she wasn't in a hurry to get up. She tried to hit him again but this time he caught her hand easily in his, followed by her second. Natsumi quickly found his grip was like iron, completely unmovable.

"You made me think Chizu-neechan was a pervert!!" The girl shouted back. "Turns out she just washes you!"

"That's your problem if you thought that! And I don't like her doing it!" Kotaro returned enraged.

"Why not?!" She was shouting even louder now, moving her hands trying to hit him again.

"She's always grabbing me or touching me when I don't expect it! I keep thinking I'm getting attacked in the bath!! Kinda like this! _Now get off me!!_" This time when he replied his voice was a growl. A literal growl, a feral angry sound forced into the vague shape of words that immediately made her back off.

For a second Natsumi felt legitimate fear – the shape of his face twisted into a snarl burnt into her mind in such a way that she knew she'd be reminded of it for many days to come – but as quickly as it came it was dismissed.

Instead she felt utterly ashamed at herself, to even think of being frightened of a boy she thought of almost like her own brother just because he was showing anger. Whom thought of her like family too, and whom she thought of in other ways too. Kotaro wouldn't hurt her over a stupid little squabble like this. Hell, he wouldn't hurt a defenceless girl over anything as far as she knew. It had taken partial amnesia, a mind-rotting fever and very likely mild hypothermia coupled with innate fear of his pursuers before he had attacked the only girl she knew him to have harmed – and even then he had only scratched her when she knew damn well he had the power to drive his arm right through her and out the other side. To add emphasis to that, Natsumi could see the guilt in his eyes every single time he looked at her when their mutual roommate wasn't paying attention.

Kotaro watched as the redhead pulled away from him and decided to let her go, staying silent as he watched her turn her back on him and sit down on her stool without another word.

"Kotaro-kun?" She asked after a few seconds, her voice subdued and free of the anger from moments ago.

"What?" He answered gruffly, already feeling guilt that he had used 'that' voice on her – just glad she didn't seem scared.

"Sorry..." She turned to him and answered, a look of shame on her face as she was barely able to meet his eyes. Sometimes Natsumi really wished her rare temper didn't get the better of her. "Did I hurt you?"

Kotaro didn't even think about mentioning the hit to the head, instead bursting out with a loud laugh. "Yeah right, as if a little weakling like you could hurt me Nee-chan." He chuckled – sitting cross-legged on the floor. "But apology accepted. Sorry for makin' ya angry too."

"Thanks Kota-kun." There was a moment of silence where she smiled at him pleasantly, and the only sounds that could be heard was the bubbling of the water in the background. "Do you always assume someone's attacking you if they touch you?" She asked suddenly, curiously.

"Not always, that'd just be stupid." He shrugged at her from the floor. "But sometimes when I'm not prepared. Its just an instinct like anything else."

"But why?" She asked with a look on his face that made his stomach turn – a look of pity. For a moment Kotaro considered telling her off for it, but decided against it. As demonstrated Natsumi had a lightning temper – she could be angry and even mildly violent in the blink of an eye – but it tended not to show unless she was really stressed over something and it disappeared in a flash. Him complaining would only make her feel worse about whatever had gotten her riled up.

He didn't think his instinct was anything to be pitied over. So what if he got jumpy when someone surprised him. It had been useful more times than awkward so far in his life.

"Well, before I came here the major reason to get in arm's reach of me was to gut me or something. Anyone'd get used to being jumpy after that." Slowly Kotaro lifted himself from where she had knocked him and it occurred to Natsumi for the first time that he had been naked when she was on top of him. That he was quite, quite naked right now. Her eyes suddenly locked above his neck so the worst she could see was some of that hard toned muscle in her periphery. Which was much better of course. "So when people jump up behind me in the bath, pin me to the floor and start attacking me with soap I get a little jumpy, ya know?" He laughed awkwardly, and she joined in.

"I'm sorry about Chizu-nee. She's too used to being around other girls I guess... maybe she thinks she's got the right to grab anything she likes..." Natsumi almost mumbled the end, looking utterly sheepish. "Speaking of washing... I haven't even started!" She laughed again just as nervously as before. '_Why am I laughing?? I'm just going to look stupid in front of him...' _She lamented inside her head. She was just like one of those awkward girls on TV romances, who giggled too loud and lost control when good looking guys even glanced at them. Not that he was especially good looking of course. _'Yeah right... as if I believe that.'_

"Well I'm pretty much done, so I'll go soak in the bath for a while. Join me when you're ready 'kay?"

"Alright, enjoy yourself." She smiled as he left, before covering her eyes frantically with her hands.

He had simply walked forwards without a care for his dress, giving her an eyeful of muscled buttock – and adorably cute tail - before she had reacted. Except...

Her fingers parted and she peeked between them, wide eyes above crimson cheeks and a dry mouth as he disappeared into the steam and the water.

_'This is so wrong... I've seen him naked before anyway so why do I react like this now?' _Of course, back then she had been embarrassed – he was the very very first boy she had ever seen without clothes, though she hadn't seen his front. But then, back then she hadn't had these feelings either. _'Damn... am I admitting them now? I guess I already did back with the other girls, even if he didn't hear me...' _

Still, it almost relieved her to just be able to concede that yes, maybe she did have feelings for him.

_'Maybe I should say it out loud?' _To the redhead it felt like saying it in her head didn't really count, for it to be real she had to actually say it with her mouth instead. Only then would she be truly acknowledging it, admitting once and for all - to herself at the very least - that she had a crush on her roommate. On a boy who was years younger than her, though it was still not as bad as what the other girls seemed to have for their teacher.

Then again, at least Negi was human. Kotaro certainly was not.

Still she looked around her carefully, making sure no one was watching before opening her mouth to the tiniest degree and whispering so quiet a person would have had to have had their ears to her lips to hear her.

"I'm in love with Kotaro-kun..."

It left a rosy feeling in her mouth that spread across her body, but she dared not repeat her words. Instead the lovestruck young girl hummed as she went about washing herself, proud of what she had managed to do that day even if she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to be doing about it.

* * *

The young Hanyou sighed as he sank deep into the water, his back against a warm rock as the soothing liquid came right up to his chin – the complaints of his aching muscles dying away. After a little thought he had decided to go as far into the baths as he could, then make sure he was facing away from the entrance. Even he wasn't completely dense after all, he had quickly found early on in his life that just because he had no problems being naked in front of people it didn't mean everyone did.

Of course, in his case it was more or less pointless to have any shame about that sort of thing anyway. A combination of size-shifting transformations, high risk fights and general lack of funds had meant that most of his clothes in his old life had been almost constantly falling apart. Other times he would need to enter a dog or wolf form and obviously couldn't bring them with him, so either way he spent a lot of time naked.

Besides all that though he also just plain thought that any man should always be proud and dignified about himself - especially in the baths. Covering up was something girls did.

Though when he thought a bit it seemed not _all_ girls did. Chizuru certainly didn't, not from him anyway, and Ayaka was always stripping around Negi. But Natsumi seemed be more timid than his other room-mates and frankly he preferred that. It was way, way less embarrassing. Not to mention that in the end... despite the other's having far more mature... features – and Kotaro had to shake his head to get rid of the images that was conjuring - her shyness made her seem much more feminine than they did.

_'Actually, something's been different about Natsumi-neechan recently. I can definitely smell it...' _Unfortunately for him – but much much more fortunately for Natsumi herself - whilst Kotaro was perfectly capable of smelling the subtle changed in pheromones that all creatures gave off he was still having trouble matching up the right ones to the right situations. Some of them were easy, if you smelt a similar smell every time you were threatening someone it didn't take a genius to figure out that smell was for fear. It was the same with anger, and he was pretty sure he'd also gotten down one for happiness and maybe even disgust too. But beyond that he just hadn't been exposed to them enough to start matching the rest up.

But whatever that scent was, he liked it. He liked it a lot. The rest of them were just smells drifting there, no more important than anything else really. This one was interesting... and she'd only really started making it recently, over the past few weeks he'd have to guess. It was difficult to tell since girls insisted on wearing weird perfumes which messed up their aromas – though admittedly it did make it a damn sight easier when he had to track one of them for one reason or another.

Of course, that wasn't to say she smelled bad before – or now actually since her normal fragrance still lay just underneath the new one. Neither did Chizuru but when he'd told her this the mature looking girl had just giggled at him - so Kotaro had just guessed it probably wasn't a normal human thing to do and not mentioned it since.

_'Just a good thing I'm not a stupid Human, or id never even have noticed it.'_ He pitied them really. To think, an entire sense that they more or less missed out on just because their noses were lame. '_Doesn't stop them from cooking good smelling stuff though. Or smelling good either I guess.'_

Maybe he'd get to smell her more when this was done, when she was cooking the food maybe?

Ah... the thought of food made him drool. Usually Chizuru cooked, and that was good, but by no means were his other room-mates bad at it either. And Natsumi knew all his favourites off by heart.

Kotaro licked his lips and stretched out in the bath, letting out a long yawn as he crossed his arms behind his head. He wasn't always the most patient of people, but he was prepared to wait as long as Natsumi wanted right now – he could always wait patiently if a really good thing was going to be at the end.

* * *

Natsumi's a really great character in my opinion. I like how she just sits in the background and makes those cute little comments. Not to mention I'm always an adorer of the B-Type Tsundere. Also known as the DereDere. Sweet and cute as a button until she switches to that fiery temper for just a few glorious seconds. Just enough time to cause some damage and then regret it In a whirlwind of character developing awesomeness.

Anyway, the next chapter shouldn't take me as long to write at this one (which took me way longer than it should have) except bear in mind that ive also got an obligation to writing the sequel to my other fiction. And since that one got like 120 reviews in 6 chapters, I'm thinking I owe it to a lot of people to hurry up XD


	3. Hide Your Fear Or Cant

Here it is, seven thousand words to make up for the delay. Please enjoy it.

* * *

Outside their dormitory the world had gone dark far faster than someone might have thought possible in summer, but it neatly explained why the day had been so hot and humid. Especially when heavy rain began hitting the windows hard enough to sound like pebbles instead of water.

_'I guess it's typical our warmest weather would just be because of a summer storm.' _Natsumi thought to herself feeling worried. The actress could only hope it didn't turn out to be a thunderstorm. Hearing those creepy booming sounds far above her was a sure-fire way to make sure she wouldn't get to sleep, plus she hated the idea that she couldn't leave the building. Mostly because just the thought of going outside during a thunderstorm was close to top on her list of most terrifying things in the world, right below big hairy spiders and heights.

Still, it wasn't long before she was pulled away from the window by the familiar prickling feeling on the back of her neck of someone watching her. She glanced around to confirm her suspicions and saw her room-mate looking in her direction unblinking.

"K-Kota-kun... stop staring at me like that." The girl told him quietly, a little embarrassed at herself.

"Like what?"

"Like you're so impatient you're just going to go ahead and eat me!" She giggled at him as she turned back to the pan she was stirring, feeling pleased with herself over how well the meal was going – the storm almost forgotten with the knowledge of his company. Honestly, she loved preparing food almost as much as she loved to act. Cooking a delicious meal for her friends and loved ones with a cute pink apron tied around her and a smile on her face – it was fun and it made her feel girlish in a household of people whose bodies were straining to prove their gender. And of course, it helped that she was making a meal for her crush... and that it was obviously driving him nuts with the wait.

Kotaro was standing just a few feet behind her, not even leaning against anything like he usually did. He was just hovering around the area, staring at the food she was preparing with wide saucer eyes and a mouth that was freely drooling. The only thing stopping him from making a mess on the floor was the fact he licked his chops every minute or so, but if it kept up the redhead wouldn't be surprised if that failed as well. It looked like it was taking all his strength not to push her aside and go at his meal how it was – and that was something that put pride behind a chef.

"Its not my fault I'm like this, you can't smell it!" He whined, licking his lips for the umpteenth time. "It smells delicious~~"

Natsumi could have just burst right there with that compliment, or at least that's what she felt like. The butterfly feeling in her stomach that she had held pretty much 24/7 around him for the past few weeks rose every time he made even the slightest friendly comment to her, a flat out compliment made it explode.

Really, it did smell good – there was cooking meat, spices, oil and a dozen other things easily enough to make her salivate just like he was. "I can definitely smell it Kota-kun." Even now she felt her stomach rumbling – the unladylike noise thankfully covered up by the hiss of the oil in the pan. Not that she thought he'd really care about that sort of thing.

"What? Ya call that smelling?" He mocked. "Compared to me you might as well not have a nose."

"Well it's already done, so why don't you set the table instead of making fun of us mere humans." She asked with a raised eyebrow and a cheeky smile, half-tempted to hit him with the spoon if he kept making fun of her species.

"Fine fine, you're just jealous you ain't a Hanyou." He smirked as he did as she asked, with only two spaces today since Chizuru was still away and Ayaka was out. _'Probably chasing Negi around again, damn creepy woman. Ah well, means more of Natsumi-chan's food for me...'_

"Like I'd want to be a dog-girl." Natsumi laughed as she began serving the food out, mouth pursed and eyes raised to the ceiling as she imagined a dog-eared version of herself sporting a tail. The image was more appealing than she had first thought it would be and she couldn't suppress a small smile at the idea. "I guess I'd look all cute though..." Not to mention the fact she'd be the same species as Kotaro. That would have had benefits.

Having finished adding the ingredients Natsumi stood by the stove occasionally stirring the pot, waiting for it to finish cooking as Kotaro moved in and out of the kitchen area with the right things for eating. The rain was still hitting the window harshly and she was glad she wasn't outside like some people would be right now. _'Come to think of it, where is Iincho? I haven't seen her all day and I even made extra for her...' _The class president didn't usually stay out late after all. She always spoke about setting a good example for the other students.

"I'm done here," Kotaro shouted to her from the other part of the dorm having finished his task in record time.

"Alright Kota-kun, its almost ready..."

Natsumi tried to convince herself that him bringing the heavy food filled serving pan in was an act of chivalry, instead of just him not trusting her to bring the precious cargo a few feet to the table. It didn't really work, but she was still glad he had done it. She was feeling a little drained even now from all the things she had done today, and she was always sleepy on hot days regardless.

Nevertheless Natsumi was more hungry than she was tired and sat down for the meal eagerly. Opposite her Kotaro looked like he'd start eating his own arm if he couldn't get something soon. To his credit though, he waited for her to finish serving herself before he began. Admittedly the gentlemanly act was ruined somewhat when he buried his head into the dish, but she didn't really mind and eventually he switched to using cutlery like a normal person.

The red haired girl couldn't keep herself from smiling so hard her – now reddening – cheeks actually began to hurt. In the time it took for her to finish off half her own meal he'd already gone for seconds, complimenting her cooking with words on the rare times his mouth wasn't full, and with loud moans of pleasure when it was.

"Ugh... so full..." He announced after a while, leaning back in his chair and groaning as he placed a hand on his now sated stomach.

"Well you did ate three full portions." The red-head pointed out, standing up to clear her plate away. She'd leave it by the sink for now, there was no way she had the energy to do the dishes tonight.

"It was too good not to..." He replied as he got up to help her – still running his tongue around his mouth to capture the delicious excess sauce. "I can't remember the last time I had something that good."

"You really like my cooking don't you Kota-kun?" Natsumi asked looking pleased with herself since she already knew the answer. People often said that the way to a boys heart was through his stomach, and honestly Kotaro usually seemed simple enough that that would probably work for her.

"Course I do," He replied sounding almost insulted. "My tongue works."

That remark made her giggle at him. "I'm glad you enjoyed it." She told him. "But you seem a little tired." She pointed out as he yawned.

"I always get sleepy after a big meal."

"Me too... though I was already tired. I think its time to get ready for bed."

"Sure." He shrugged. He wasn't like Negi, who always tried to stay up as late as he could (as long as he wasn't teaching class the next day anyway). Kotaro just went to sleep when he was tired and woke up when he wasn't – something which often left him with weird sleeping patterns but at least made him adaptable. If he woke up in the middle of the night he just went off for a walk or to train, or occasionally changed into his wolf form and went hunting. "Is Ayaka-neechan not coming back tonight?"

"I don't know." She answered truthfully. "I haven't heard anything from her. I might try calling her in a bit." Natsumi thought aloud as she walked into the bathroom with her room-mate in tow. Happily for them, brushing his teeth properly wasn't something she or Chizuru had had to work hard on to get him to do. Apparently he had done it even when he lived by himself who could tell where (since he usually avoided questions about himself). It was just the matter of reminding him to use toothpaste on his brush, something that he seemingly had never bothered to use in the past and hadn't been used to.

Still, the actress had to give him credit for his teeth – they were amazing regardless. They weren't just immaculately white, as he stood next to her brushing away in front of the mirror she could get a good look at a mouth that belonged in something that killed large game animals. He had real canine teeth in his mouth too, not the tiny little points that Humans got but big sharp fangs that only Eva could possibly rival. And if their resident vampire could beat him on those then there was no way she'd beat him on the rest of his teeth because every one of those looked sharp too. One thing was for sure, if he bit someone they would know about it.

Her wide green eyes caught his predatory purple ones in the mirror and Natsumi looked away in a flash, turning red as she stared at the floor instead and finished cleaning her own less impressive mouth. Once they were both finished she said goodnight to him and they split up at the bathroom door, she going left towards her bedroom and him going right back into the rest of the apartment. Their dormitory had two bedrooms, one larger one that she shared with Chizuru, and another smaller one on the other side of the place which Ayaka slept in. Kotaro on the other hand slept in neither, despite them offering to get him a bed of some sort. Instead he had taken to sleeping on the couch with a blanket over himself and seemed perfectly happy doing it.

Natsumi entered her room and sighed when she saw Chizuru's empty bed. It was nice to get some time alone with Kotaro, but she did miss her best friend.

The redhead quickly closed the door and stripped down to her panties – not one to wear a bra to bed. Not one to really wear a bra much at all in fact. There wasn't much point to have them in the end, except to help her feel less pathetic when compared to her friends. Nevertheless she owned a few she liked – and of course there was that one that she really really liked, though that one was less for support and more for... other reasons. The very thought of buying it had made her go rosy red and she kept it at the very bottom of her drawers with the matching panties, but it was nice to know even she had something to help her look good.

_'Its a good thing Yue-chan wears such adult underwear, or I would have never have thought of ordering them online like she does...' _

The flushed girl quickly started putting on her normal nightclothes before she got any... ideas. They were just a pair of pink pyjamas, insanely childish in comparison to anything her other female room-mates wore.

The light outside her room was now off and Natsumi guessed Kotaro had already lay down on the couch for sleep. Her own fatigued body soon begged her to follow his example and she moved to her bed on one side of the small room, falling onto it with a happy sigh. Almost as good as her comfortable bed was her discovery that the sound of rain and wind outside wasn't even really unpleasant. Without the loud crashes of thunder to scare her it just made her feel cozy to be resting indoors instead of out there with the weather.

Smiling to herself at her luck, the petite redhead snuggled into her comforter and slowly tried to fall asleep.

The boom resounded around the house like a bomb had gone off far above them, echoing around the landscape for miles around and completely covering over Natsumi's squeal.

As the now very sore girl picked herself up from the bedroom floor she at least thanked the fact it had been so loud. If Kotaro had heard her she would have died from shame. She collected together the comforter that had followed her off the bed and lay back down, eyes now wide awake.

"I guess I should have expected it to start just when I was getting to sleep." She moaned to herself sadly. Her luck had always been terrible.

There was another rolling bang above her and Natsumi instantly tried to curl up in her comforter again, pressing the fabric against her ears in the hope of getting rid of the noise. It didn't work. The next one that came was just as loud as the first.

It wasn't just the loud noise that she didn't like. It was the randomness, the not knowing when one would go off that got her. She'd be lured into a false sense of security and then it would come again. It didn't help that right now all Natsumi could think about was the fact that their room was on the top floor of the dormitory – that and that she was pretty sure the television aerial was above their room too.

"I really wish I hadn't just thought of that." The redhead said to herself, now wondering what would happen if it was right above where she was supposed to be sleeping and lightning hit. "And I wish Chizu-nee was here."

Things weren't so bad with Chizuru around. Ayaka made fun of her for being such a baby but Chizuru never said anything if she thought she was genuinely afraid. And even when she wasn't awake it wasn't too bad, Natsumi felt a little better just having someone in the room with her. Except now she was basically alone except for Kotaro and it wasn't like she could ask him to come sleep in Chizuru's bed just to make her feel better.

Could she?

"If he laughs at me I'll hit him!" She huffed turning red as she got up and turned her light on. It took only one glance in the mirror to stop her as she caught a look at herself in the childish pyjama nightwear and the look of obvious fear on her face. _'Aw... I don't want him to see me like this... I'm already acting like a child by asking him.' _The actress whined at herself in her head. To look at her now she was sure people would think she was about 8 years old or something

No one wanted their crush to think they were so... babyish. If she was going to admit to him she was afraid of a simple summer thunderstorm she certainly didn't want him seeing her in this.

Slowly a very naughty idea blossomed in the young girls head.

The bottom drawer of her dresser was pulled open and the other clothes thrown aside so she could get at it. Just looking at it was grounds to make her turn the same colour as her hair, but the little actress was determined to put it on regardless. She had been a coward earlier that day when she hadn't been able to bring herself to ask Kotaro her real question, what he thought of her. She had been a coward and failed completely. But if she wanted her crush to ever become anything more than a stupid fantasy then that had to change. This would be her first step.

The stupid childish nightwear was thrown aside and her panties stripped off. It took her a moment to gather the courage she needed, but it wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be. Without Chizuru or Ayaka around it was just Kotaro and her, and she _wanted_ him to see.

A few minutes later Natsumi slipped out of her bedroom and found the light-switch, turning the dimmer up only the tiniest bit so as not to startle her room-mate with blinding light. She walked through the apartment quietly until she rounded the table they had been eating on just a short while ago and came to the small but cozy living area. There lying on the couch was their resident dog Hanyo – wearing the same jeans and t-shirt he had put on after the bath – fast asleep.

She stood over him shyly - twiddling her thumbs in nervousness - not entirely sure what to do next. She had really been expecting him to still be up like she was, but then he always seemed to get to sleep easily. When he didn't have something specific to do he'd just take a nap. It was probably the reason she had never ever seen him tired.

_'I guess I should just nudge him or something.' _She thought to herself. There wasn't really much else she could do to wake him, but it seemed so unsubtle now she thought clearly about it all. If she had just walked in with him around then it seemed more natural, waking him up to look at her was just obvious. She didn't want him thinking she had changed her usual sleeping clothes just so he could see her in her new things – admittedly that was exactly what she was doing but she didn't want him _knowing_ that.

"Well well well, I wonder what's going on in here then?" The voice was filled to the brim with humour and camaraderie and good will. It was therefore immediately bowel-wrenchingly terrifying. It was the voice a hungry cat would use while offering to help a mouse from a trap, already full on aware no matter how the conversation goes things will go it's way.

Natsumi stood straight up in shock, every muscle tensed and her eyes wide. Instantly the blush that had been dusting her cheeks extended to her whole body as she felt her skin burn with heat. Very slowly she inched around to face the front door, where Ayaka stood with a wet umbrella and the widest smirk Natsumi had ever seen in her life plastered across her face. And when the owner of the smirk had a life that existed as a succession of wealth, compliments and faculty-enforced power play over the rest of the student body then you knew that was saying something.

The redhead wasn't sure whether to burst into tears or just run away. She would have done both but there was only enough brainpower for one, the rest was devoted to trying to think up any sort of excuse that could explain her standing over the sleeping Kotaro wearing less fabric than you'd need to make a handkerchief. Although it'd have to be a very lacy handkerchief.

"The brat asleep over there?" The taller girl asked as she put her umbrella down and took of her coat.

Natsumi nodded.

"Alright then." The smirk was replaced with a friendly smile, and yet somehow that was kind of worse. "Come with me..." Before the smaller girl could say anything Ayaka had her by the hand, pulling her into the more mature girls bedroom and closing the door behind them. Natsumi sat down on Ayaka's bed, feeling week in the knees already.

"So," Ayaka began with her back up against the door – making it abundantly clear to the small timid actress she wasn't going to be escaping any time soon. "All this and you call me a pervert?" She giggled. "When it turns out you're double the pervert I am."

Natsumi looked down at herself with tears in her eyes.

"No no no, not that Natsumi-chan." Ayaka said shaking her head. "You look fantastic, really." She smiled. "I didn't think you could look so sexy... I've got more competition in this house than just Chizuru." The words made the redhead smile even if they were embarrassing.

"Yue-san helped me find them..." She offered up, surprised – and a little bit suspicious – that Ayaka was trying to be benevolent. Or at least seemed to be."In a magazine."

"You'll have to lend me it." Ayaka said truthfully, not quite under her breath. Her innocent adorable little room-mate was suddenly seeming a lot more like a woman and less like the timid little girl she was used to teasing. "But what I was talking about is who you're wearing it for." She continued. "I guess I don't have to actually say this, but it's for Kotaro right?"

"..." Natsumi was silent, just looking down at the floor, her eyes hidden under a long red fringe and some concentrated shame.

"Should I take that as a yes then?" There was a nod this time. "Alright, so you've got a crush on him don't you?"

There was a long long pause.

"Yes..."

Any moment now Natsumi expected the teasing, the laughs and the insults to come thick and fast. Ayaka was not a mean girl for the most part, but she wasn't gentle and if you did something wrong then she would make sure you knew about it. In the little actress's mind, few things could be more wrong than the feelings she was having right now.

Instead of the scathing criticisms and the mocking though Natsumi felt the bed move as her classmate sat down on the bed beside her. The next thing she knew her mostly-nude body was pressed up against Ayaka's in a warm hug, her face pulled in at chest height.

Nestled into Ayaka's generous bosom two wide green eyes looked up at an understanding face completely clean of malice.

"I'm glad you admitted that Natsumi-chan." The other girl said after a while, releasing her from the hug feeling a lot better. "You've gotten braver haven't you?"

"I've been trying to... so I can admit it to him." She answered quietly, ashamed of herself. "I shouldn't like him though. He's still a kid. This just makes me a pervert like you said I was."

Ayaka laughed. It wasn't a cruel laugh, but it was still strange for her to hear it now. "Natsumi-chan you won't hear any complaints from me. Besides, you're only fifteen yourself. He isn't that much younger than us you know. Just a few years."

"He's still just a kid."

"Still, I think your little seduction would work on him if you wear this..."

"I wasn't trying to seduce him!" She fumed, cheeks glowing.

"Then what were you doing?" Ayaka smirked again.

"I was going to ask him if he wanted to sleep in Chizu-nee's bed. So I didn't have to be alone with the thunder..." She explained, feeling ashamed at herself for being afraid this time. But if Ayaka thought it was funny though she didn't say anything about it.

"Oh... someone has been clever." She smirked again. "So you're just gonna try and catch his eye like this and see how he reacts?"

"I guess so..." Natsumi didn't let on that that had been her plan exactly. Ayaka was terrible when she knew she was right about something that embarrassed you.

"But you know..." And now the taller girl's voice sounded a lot more mischievous. "Even that's not what I was talking about when I said you're a perve you know." She giggled.

Natsumi looked up at her in confusion and worry. What else had she done that was apparently even worse than liking someone so young. Or dressing up like... this.

"So? You don't realise?" Ayaka asked, holding back laughs. "Its really easy to get."

"What?" The redhead asked her almost frantically. The more mature girl grinned at her and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"The thing is," She breathed the words out with a voice like honey. Even without seeing her wide grin it would have been clear to anyone that she was loving every single second that she could spend drawing this out. "I'm pretty sure most teenage girls don't dress up in super sexy lingerie for their _younger brothers_."

The moment she said it Natsumi could have screamed.

Instead she leapt back like her ear was burning and struck her head painfully on Ayaka's bedroom wall, ending up in the foetal position on the other girl's bed cradling her aching brain with tears in her eyes. Beside her Ayaka tried desperately but ultimately in vain to stop laughing as she checked her smaller classmate wasn't too badly harmed by her own awkwardness.

_'I can't believe I forgot about that!'_ Natsumi thought to herself, biting her lip to stop herself shouting out. Further along the bed dainty pale legs kicked back and forth in what was probably a coping mechanism for either moderate pain or extreme embarrassment.

The stressed out girl had completely forgotten that they had told Ayaka that Kotaro was her little brother so that he could stay in their dorm. It was so long ago, and it only came up every so often anyway that she only really remembered when someone brought it up. Now it was coming back to bite her in the behind.

_'Why did it take her this long to bring that up?'_ She shouted at herself in her own mind. Beside her Ayaka had leaned back to watch the show of her room-mate having something close to a meltdown. At least, that's what it looked like from her perspective.

"B-B-B-B-"

"Relax Natsumi." The blonde interrupted before she could even get the first word out. "He's not your brother is he?"

She shook her head violently - with wide eyes and red cheeks puffed out.

"We... just sorta found him one day." She tried to explain once she had calmed a bit. "And Chizu-nee took him back here... and we got too used to him and asked him to stay." The girl managed once she realised Ayaka didn't really think she was trying to commit incest.

"So you and Chizuru just told me that so you could keep some random kid in our room? Well, I can't say I wouldn't do the same if it was Negi-sensei..." Her voice trailed off as she slipped into fantasies for a second before shaking her head free of them and returning to reality. "But I'm surprised you know."

"W-Why?"

"Well everyone else seems to like Negi-sensei. Half the class seems to be in love with him sometimes." She sighed, knowing the amount of competition. "But you don't seem interested in him at all all the time he's here, and then this mystery boy shows up and you go for him instead? Why do you like him?"

It took Natsumi a second to get over the fact Ayaka had asked a question that wasn't completely perverted, and much more than a second to try and figure out the answer.

"Um... I'm not really sure..." She admitted. Of course, there were loads of things she liked about him. But a lot of that she couldn't even tell to Ayaka – one of the slowly falling number of people in their class who didn't have any idea about the magical world. "He's nice to me I guess. And he's cool and collected and strong." She said timidly.

"Strong? He's not even in his teens."

"That doesn't matter, he's still super strong. Don't you remember the fighting tournament at the school festival?"

"I couldn't see any of the earlier matches." She had only managed to turn up for Negi's last fight – though she was glad to have seen it.

"Well even though he didn't get as far in that, he usually beats Negi-sensei in fighting and he trained with Ku Fei-san!"

"How do you know?"

"Um... I watch them training sometimes..." She confessed. "He's really good!"

Ayaka made a mental note to ask Negi if he was hurting anywhere at all. "So what else do you like then?"

"I like how he's um..." It was hard for her to find the right word, but she was trying.

"Oh... I think I know." Ayaka laughed. "Little Natsumi likes bad boys doesn't she?"

It made her stutter and blush, but she nodded. That was a good name for what he was.

"I guess the brat kind of counts as one of those. In a few years he'll probably be wearing leather and riding a motorcycle." Ayaka half-joked.

"Um... he also used to be hired out by people to hit other people for money..." Natsumi added, feeling she should rally to the defence of Kotaro. It wasn't like he was a normal little boy after all.

"What? Really?" Ayaka asked incredulously. The little redhead nodded.

"He doesn't really say much about the people he's worked for... but I think they must all have been criminal types."

"Wow. I guess the brat really does count then." She shrugged. "Kinda weird for someone so young but I guess if he's anywhere near Ku Fei in fighting then he'd get a lot of people hiring him."

"I don't think he got paid a lot though..." Looking back at what she'd seen he seemed like the type of guy who considered a roof that didn't have any holes in it high-class.

"Well, he better find some money for when you two are dating."

"Wha?" The petite teen asked, a little shocked. "I don't even know if he likes me though..."

"Hehe, he will if he sees you wearing that stuff." Ayaka winked at her, causing her friend to experience a bizarre mixture of shame and confidence at the same time.

"Do I really look good?" She looked up at her friend and studied her carefully to try to see if she was lying.

There was only smiles and honesty. "Cute, sexy, desirable. If Kotaro doesn't go nuts for you then he's not human."

_'You had to choose that of all things to say...' _Natsumi thought to herself. But she knew what her friend meant, and she was happy all the same. Ayaka didn't usually pull punches about this sort of thing, she definitely didn't give a compliment unless someone really deserved it.

"Thank you..." This time it was the smaller girls turn to hug the taller. "But couldn't he just not be interested in girls yet?"

"Oh please. All boys are interested in girls." She said it with the air of someone who had personal experience in that. "You've just gotta coax it out of the younger ones a bit. And you look very coaxing in that." She smirked.

Natsumi turned tomato-coloured for what seemed like the twentieth time in as many minutes. How many little boys had fallen prey to their class president's terrifying desires? Was Negi the first one? She hoped so. More importantly if he wasn't then why the hell hadn't anyone caught her yet? '_Though I guess I'm not any better now...' _

Maybe she bought off the witnesses. With the amount of money her family had Natsumi was surprised she didn't have a little boy as a pet to keep in her room.

"Alright, so here's the plan."

"Huh?"

"The plan to get his attention." She smiled. "You want it to seem like you don't even care he's seeing you in that, okay? It'll seem more natural. So i'll go out and wake him up, then you can come in once he's awake and ask him to come sleep with you."

"Iincho!"

"I mean, sleep in the same room as you." She laughed. "So are you ready?"

"I guess so..." She answered in the tone of someone who couldn't be less ready.

"Alright. Here I go, good luck for your part." Ayaka winked at her before she left, loving how her friend got so shy when she did. Honestly, she was beginning to see why Haruna enjoyed doing this sort of thing to everyone. It really was a lot of fun to see her classmate almost wet herself every time something embarrassing happened. _'Enough fun though, I have a job to do.'_

The tall blonde walked out into the living room and thought for a moment about how to wake him up before just deciding to crank the lights up to full brightness and see what that did. As she thought he soon started shifting around uncomfortably on his back before he finally grew conscious enough to grunt and flip himself over.

"Huh?" He mumbled sleepily as he raised his head from the couch and looked around to see Ayaka sitting on the other chair and flicking through TV channels with disinterest on her face. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked her, not awake enough yet to be angry but fast getting there.

"Trying to find something to watch Brat," She told him. "If you don't want people waking you up then you shouldn't sleep on the couch."

"Alright, maybe I'll go sleep in your bed instead." He smiled a toothy smile at her, but it was in no way friendly.

"Don't you dare! I wouldn't even let you sleep on my floor." She told him haughtily. "Besides, a brother should sleep in the same bed as his sister if there's nowhere else. Not just lie on the couch like some sort of homeless person."

"Eh? With Natsumi-neechan?"

In Ayaka's room the red-headed girl in question held her ear to the door listening intently to their conversation. Kotaro seemed surprised at the idea, but he hadn't sounded repulsed or anything. And she was only going to ask him to sleep in Chizuru's bed, not share hers or anything like that.

"Of course! Family members are supposed to be that close. Though I can see why Natsumi wouldn't want to ask someone like you." If Kotaro replied to her Ayaka didn't hear it, as at that moment a loud boom of thunder sounded through the tiny apartment.

The small boy looked to the window where rain was still pelting fiercely into the glass and gave a long whistle. "Wow, even worse out there now. I hope Negi's alright."

"Huh?" Ayaka asked, her interest instantly grabbed by the inclusion of her favourite teacher's name. "What do you mean? What about Negi-sensei?"

"Oh, well I'm just hoping he put his tent up in time to get out of this quick."

"Tent?"

"Yeah. He went with the midget and Nodoka-neesan to the big library island place." The boy explained to her. "Cept it's too dangerous to stay inside the place at night so he was saying he was gonna camp out on the island with them."

"C-Camping? With those two?" The blonde stuttered in shock as her imagination began running through the things Yue and Nodoka could be doing with her Negi-sensei - it wasn't exactly a secret that they both felt for him after all. Worse though was the fact they were best friends. Usually two people would oppose one another when trying to win a single person's affections, instead they tended to work together because they couldn't bare to hurt one another's feelings. The beauty of their strong friendship was somewhat lost on the class president who could only think that it meant one of them could hold him down as the other went to work.

An eye twitched.

"Yeah, the weather was so good earlier that they weren't gonna even bother putting up their tent. They probably got soaked putting it up late."

"Wet?"

"No spare clothes either. That's what happens when you don't plan properly I guess." The boy shrugged. "But I guess they'll be alright as long as they get out of their wet stuff before they catch something."

Beside him Ayaka's mind had just introduced nudity into the equation. Kotaro had to work hard to hide his smirk when he saw her hands gripping the armrests of her seat so tightly her knuckles had gone pale.

"Negi-sensei!" She stood up and shouted, tears running down her eyes. "I'll save you!"

The door had slammed behind her before Kotaro had even started to laugh, the blonde girl in such a rush that she hadn't even taken her umbrella – she'd just grabbed at one of her coats as she ran out.

Inside Ayaka's bedroom Natsumi shook her head and sighed. He was so transparent. Hopefully Ayaka would realise soon and come back before she did herself too much harm in the rain. No one could seriously run all the way to library island in this and not doubt his words after all. She'd probably be back in a few minutes once she had checked Asuna and Konoka's dorm room. For now though it was time for her to try and be brave again.

She opened the door and stepped out.

"Kota-kun... that was a mean thing for you to do..." She reprimanded him, though her tone didn't sound especially disproving. She was grateful for Ayaka's kind words towards her, but that didn't mean she condoned the frankly terrifying lust of their class president.

He laughed loudly." I know, I know. But damn funny too." The wolf boy replied as he turned to face her.

It was obvious to Natsumi from the way he had already opened his mouth that he had meant to say something else, but the moment his eyes locked onto her whatever sentence he had planned died before it passed his lips. Instead he stared directly ahead, his mouth still open.

The only way the young shy actress knew her heart wasn't currently in her throat was the way she could plainly feel it trying to burst out of her chest. She had felt something similar to this feeling before, when she had gone on stage in front of her very very first audience.

He still stared.

"K-Kotaro-kun?" She tried to say it naturally and smoothly, but his name came from her lips unsteadily and nervously. Meanwhile, the young dog Hanyo looked up and down his room-mate and tried to process what he was seeing.

In front of him Natsumi stood with her arms behind her back and a deep blush colouring her cheeks. But it wasn't really her cheeks he was looking at. Purple canine eyes followed down to look at her chest, at the black silken bra that was currently lifting two smaller than average breasts into a cleavage that could still have drawn any straight man's attention. He found himself momentarily completely unable to look away, staring at that milky white valley just above the rose red lace bow that decorated the front of the bra.

His eyes followed down again, over more delicate pale skin and a thin soft looking stomach until his gaze was on the second piece of underwear.

Natsumi's blush increased ten-fold as every inch of her skin began tingling with heat. She knew exactly where he was staring.

The panties matched the bra, black silk with red lace and a large bow. They were also extremely skimpy, looking more like a bikini than anything else and making sure as much of her thin creamy hips were on display as possible.

"D-Do you like my new underwear?" Natsumi stuttered. She twirled for him and for the briefest moment Kotaro got a glance of his room-mates firm shapely behind.

Blushing almost as much as she was, Kotaro could only manage a loud gulp and a stunned nod as he stared at his room-mate.

* * *

How does everyone else read fanfiction i wonder? I always minimize the webpage so its about half the screen - it makes it more like reading a book i feel. Actually i also write like that, so my writing format is tailored to that size. It probably looks really weird stretched out.


	4. Don't Hide Your Fear

So here is another chapter finally, I packed plenty in for you guys and I guess I can tell ya there isn't long to go before fluff ends and genuine romance begins.  
Please enjoy!

* * *

The silence between them might have lasted a life time had mother nature not decided to break it instead. After staring at one another for what seemed like eternity, the room lit up for the briefest of seconds in brilliant white. Almost immediately it was followed by the loudest burst of thunder yet.

To Natsumi it sounded like someone had thrown a wrench into some hellish engine suspended just above her head.

To Kotaro it just sounded impressive and he immediately rushed to the window to take another look at the storm outside, hoping for another lightning strike as powerful as that one.

"Cool! That one had to have been right on top of us, right Natsumi-neechan?" He asked in an excited voice, turning back to face his room-mate. "Nee-chan?" His eyes grew wide as he looked back to see Natsumi on her knees on the floor, facing downwards – her bangs covering her eyes. He was beside her in less time it took most people to blink. "Nee-chan? What's wrong?" He asked frantically, searching the room for anything that could have caused her to fall or any enemies that might have been hiding. Something to blame or attack.

But there didn't seem to be anything, and the only person he could smell was her, her normally appealing scent soured only a little by the smell of fear she was radiating.

Her only response was to look further away from him as he heard a sound remarkably like a sob. His eyes widened as he sniffed the air.

"A-Are you crying?" Had she been looking, she would have seen his ears droop in confusion. As it was she could only hear the worry in his voice.

"No... No, I'm not. Really." Her voice wasn't convincing, strained as more sobs were kept down. Large, pretty but tear-filled eyes looked up at him as she tried to put on a brave face. "I just don't like thunderstorms is all." Her smile was beautiful, even if it was fake. "I'm sorry... its just, they scare me..." She admitted pathetically. "But I don't mean to be such a stupid crybaby over them."

"You don't need to apologize to me about that. It's alright to cry if you want to." Kotaro told her, his voice a little awkward as he strayed into comforting territory – something he wasn't familiar with. "You don't need to pretend you aren't. Girls are supposed to cry."

"Huh?" She sniffed, confused that he was trying to comfort her by putting down her gender. "That's not a nice thing to say Kota-kun..."

"But I think they are... " He continued, sounding unsure as he tried to figure out a way of explaining. "If girls didn't cry, then stupid guys like me wouldn't know when something's wrong." He told her, seeming a little shy as he spoke. She wasn't sure if it was because he was talking about the female sex – a subject he didn't seem totally comfortable on – or because he was having to explain his ideas. He was definitely not confident about his intelligence, so that could be it, but she got the impression it was probably both. "Or that's what I think anyway. I don't know if other guys are better at figuring out emotions and junk than me." He finished off with difficulty.

He looked at her again and realised her smile was looking more genuine now, and that the tears weren't coming anymore.

"Thank you Kotaro-kun, that really made me feel better." She told him truthfully as she wiped her eyes on her hand, glad to see how relieved he looked when she said it.

"I'm kinda surprised." He confessed, not one to put much value behind anything that came out of his own mouth - unless it was a threat at any rate. He considered himself pretty good at those. "Why?" The Hanyou asked.

"I like hearing you talk..." Natsumi answered simply, reddening a little as she admitted it. That was all she needed really, someone to speak to her to let her know she wasn't alone. It helped that she was genuinely interested in what he had to say though.

"Um... you should sit down." He held his clawed hand out to her and she took it gladly, her heart jumping as she realised he was actually blushing at her, even if only a little. _'Is it because he's holding my hand?' _

At that moment he pulled, and she noticed again his amazing strength as he lifted her easily without moving an inch himself – despite being a full head shorter than her. Natsumi allowed him to lead her to the couch and sat on it without complaint, happy to find it was still very much warm from his body heat.

Kotaro sat down beside her and, after a second of thinking, moved his blanket to cover her slightly.

"T-Thank you." She said as she pulled the material over her very bare body. Though she had the feeling that it was just as much to do with him thinking she might want to be covered up as with thinking she might be cold. Smiling at him she made sure to put the blanket partly over him too.

"Kota-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Isn't it okay for boys to cry sometimes too?"

"Huh?"

"Well if girls are supposed to, shouldn't boys as well?"

He seemed to think for quite a long time before answering her, but she was getting used to his long pauses before answering serious questions. Not that she understood it really, usually he just said whatever came into his head to other people and didn't care if he sounded stupid or not. _'Maybe he doesn't want to seem stupid to me?'_ She thought to herself. He seemed so lacking in confidence about his own mental abilities, she made a mental note to try and compliment him on saying something smart sometime.

"I don't think so." He answered finally. " I don't think its alright. Guys shouldn't cry."

"Why not?" She frowned in confusion. Again, there was a pause before he responded as he got his thoughts organised into a sentence that sounded like it made sense.

"Cause crying makes people worry. A real man should take care of things himself, he shouldn't make people worry about him."

"But girls can?"

"Yep. If girls didn't worry then guys wouldn't know what to beat up for them." He announced confidently with a nod.

His explanations made her giggle, she loved hearing how he thought about the world – even if it did seem to be a world that ran on crazy logic. He didn't seem to mind her laughing either, if anything he seemed happy to make her laugh.

"Kotaro-kun?" She asked again after a little thought.

"Yeah?"

"What if the girl is stronger than the boy? Like Kaede-san or someone? Doesn't that mean the girl should fight to protect the boy?" This didn't take him nearly as long to answer as the other questions, in fact it was almost immediate.

"No, that'd be stupid." He told her simply.

"Why?" This on the other hand stumped him for a good while before he managed to finally construct an answer.

"Um... you know that game that the midget likes playing with Negi? I can't remember the name."

_'Midget? Isn't that what he called Yue-chan?'_ "Which game?"

"That board game with the black and white pieces." He made the gesture of someone moving around chess pieces with his hands and she realised that was the game he meant.

"Chess?"

"Um... yeah. I think so." He nodded. "Well, y'know how those ones at the front are really weak and crappy compared to the ones at the back at really really good and strong?"

"Uh-huh..." Natsumi nodded, frowning. She wasn't even sure if they were still on the same subject anymore. "The pawns you mean?"

"Yeah." He nodded again. "If they suck and the ones at the back are better, why doesn't everyone ignore the pawn ones and just use the back pieces instead?" He asked her, breaking out in a smile as he finished, utterly pleased with himself. He wasn't really used to the idea of metaphors, but he thought that was a pretty good one himself.

Realization dawned on Natsumi's face as she began to understand his analogy.

"Because the pawns aren't important... it doesn't really matter if they get taken. But the back pieces are..." She thought aloud. "And even if the enemy is attacking, by sacrificing pawns you make it easier for the stronger back pieces to win."

He nodded at her, doubly pleased that he had apparently made sense.

"So boys should fight for girls even if the girls are stronger, because girls are more important no matter what?"

He nodded again.

"That's a really good way of putting it Kota-kun..." She told him, actually surprised. She hadn't expected such a complicated answer from him.

"Thanks." He responded simply, giving her another smile.

Natsumi tried not to stare at him as she ran through the conversation again in her head – shocked by how much you could learn about someone from just a few simple words. It really was amazing to see how he thought about gender roles like he did. At first she had always seen him as someone who thought boys were better, that they were stronger and faster and braver than girls and that was that. But whether he thought like that or not, it was also obvious to her that in his mind he clearly thought boys were pretty much around to serve girls – or at the very least protect them with no thought to their own lives. He seemed to sincerely believe his entire gender existed because sometimes women needed someone to punch things.

Altogether it was a life view that really didn't have much place in the modern world at all, but wasn't that why she liked him? Polite, soft, quiet, calm. He wasn't really any of those things - those were Negi's traits. Instead Kotaro was rough, hard, loud, strong and often quite decently angry. A throwback to a time where the ideal partner for a woman was something powerful, violent, dangerous and just a little bit frightening even to its allies. These were the things that attracted her to him at first, and the way he could still be caring and kind and sensitive towards her when she needed him to be was what kept her attracted to him.

So he wasn't exactly a feminist, but she didn't think that mattered much. After all, she didn't want him to be one. She liked him how he was now, a handsome scary animal who still knew how to be tender towards her when she needed him to be. The way he could give her such kinds words and comfort even despite his true aggressive, demonic nature was evidence of that.

When the next bolt of lightning hit, Natsumi felt proud of herself over the fact that she only flinched slightly when the sound of thunder followed. She did scoot up a little closer to him on the chair however, so that their shoulders were touching. He didn't pull away even a little though and she saw that as a good sign.

"I-It seems stupid being so afraid of a storm..." She thought aloud from, looking at her feet feeling ashamed.

"Not really. They used to scare the crap outta me." Kotaro admitted, looking at her with an awkward grin she could only really describe as cute. "When I was little I thought it was the sky shouting at me." He explained, looking embarrassed of himself. "I'm not really the smartest of people..."

She giggled again, feeling a little better for knowing that even he had been frightened of them at one point. Though it was hampered a little bit by the fact even he had only been afraid of them when he was younger – when he was already around four or five years younger than her to begin with.

"That's alright, not everyone needs to be a genius." She consoled him. "And you're nice, that's more important than being super-smart."

"You're nice too y'know."

"Yeah, but I don't really have much else going for me. I'm not super strong or brave like you are..."

"No, but you're an awesome cook." He offered, and she smiled at the complement. "And you're good at acting." He struggled a little now. He knew loads of things he liked about his room-mate but he wasn't sure he knew the right words and it was getting difficult. "And I think... I think you're really pretty..." It was quieter than the others, but not to quiet she couldn't hear it as they both blushed.

"Y-You think so?"

He nodded. "Yeah, not just when you wear that stuff either. I think you're really beautiful..." He was looking away from her now, instead seemingly more interested in his socks, but she didn't mind. She was far too busy with the excitement that was building as she realised he really really did think she was good looking.

Not wanting to push any harder, she didn't ask for an explanation. Instead, she simply thanked him.

"It's no problem." He responded automatically. "I'm just pointing the obvious out..."

"Still, thank you. It's sweet of you to say something like that." She beamed at him. Underneath the blanket a pale feminine hand sought out his strong masculine one, and held it gently. A heart already beating fast tried hard not to go into overdrive as he responded by – somewhat nervously – clasping his clawed and calloused fingers around her far softer and more human ones.

Kotaro turned to look at her, eyes curious and blush evident. The strange scent was back, floating over the normal mixture of smells she usually held for him, and though he still wasn't sure he thought perhaps it could be what affection was supposed to smell like. Being right next to her it had never smelt stronger to him, so he breathed in deep. Kotaro liked it. Natsumi already smelt good, but that extra scent was especially nice.

Yet another bolt of lightning struck, far further away from them than the last one had been and giving them a little warning before the thunder hit. This time Natsumi only winced and closed her eyes briefly before trying to get back to normal. Her hand did clench tighter around his though, and he squeezed hers back briefly in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"You don't seem too scared of the storm now..." Kotaro told her nervously, and she guessed it was because she was holding his hand. It amazed Natsumi how quickly he could get shy when he was exposed to things he would usually call 'girly'. In most situations he was loud and confident and generally walked around like he owned the place. Mostly because with his strength it seemed like he probably could. But when it came to hugs and kisses and feelings he shied away and tried to keep everything at arms length. She wondered if it was his young age that was doing that or if he really had problems getting close to people – but she doubted asking him would help much. He didn't seem like the type for deep self-reflection and she would probably just end up embarrassing herself.

"I don't mind them so much when someone else is around..." She explained. "Usually Chizu-nee is here so I don't get as frightened. But since she's gone, its a little harder. That's why I couldn't sleep."

"Can I help?" Kotaro asked. "I know I'm not Chizuru-neechan or anything, but you don't need to be frightened when I'm around." The boy told her.

She blushed and tried to answer without making a fool out of herself. "I know, but um... that's sort of the problem..."

"Huh?" He cocked his head in confusion, and she had to try hard not to stare over how cute it had looked. Soemtimes he really was just like a big puppy.

"I'm not afraid when you're around, but you're sleeping in another room." She explained. "So you're not around."

"So you want me to sleep in your room?"

She nodded, surprised at how easy it had been.

"I mean, if you wouldn't mind..." The redhead mumbled. "Since Chizu-nee isn't around I thought you could have her bed..."

Kotaro shrugged at her. "Sure. I don't mind." He said, not one to care where he slept if it could make her feel better. She could have asked him to sleep outside and he wouldn't have complained.

She smiled widely at him again, before standing up. He blushed as her chest entered his eye level, and then she did too as they both quickly remembered precisely what she was wearing.

Natsumi moved into her bedroom with the fastest walk she could manage, fast loosing the confidence that had first allowed her to show off her body in front of him. Kotaro stared at her retreating behind for a few seconds before shaking his head and following her inside her bedroom, closing the door behind them.

"Um... that's Chizuru's bed right there so um... good night!" Natsumi squeaked out as she dove under her covers before lifting them right up to her cheeks to watch him get into her friend's bed.

Kotaro nodded, deciding to put Natsumi's unusual behaviour down to the thunder that was still playing up randomly outside and just go to sleep. He didn't bother getting undressed, just climbing onto the bed as he was and getting comfortable.

"Night Natsumi-neechan." He told her. "And if you're scared of the storm again just wake me up, I don't mind." He gave her a confident looking grin and Natsumi nodded at him, flushing a little as she smiled back.

"Thank you Kotaro-kun." She said. "You've been really nice to me..."

"Of course. I wanna take care of girls I like." He told her nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it, I'll always help ya how I can."

"H-Have a good night Kotaro-kun." She replied as she groped for the light-switch by her bedside table. Nervous. clumsy hands found it eventually and the entire room was plunged into darkness. _'I can't believe he said that...' _Alright, so she knew that he really meant the girls he liked in general, but for a few seconds at least to her crush-addled mind it had almost sounded like a confession.

As usual he was unconscious in just a few short minutes, having long ago mastered the art of falling asleep in any situation and any location.

But Natsumi did not. Instead she lay awake in her bed, comfortable and warm and completely content – if a bit red in the face from remembering the day's events. Their bedroom wasn't very large. In fact she could have reached over and touched him if she had wanted to, if at any point she grew afraid again. But although the offer was there, Natsumi didn't think she'd need to do it - because she was no longer afraid.

Being able to see him now, even if it was only as a dark lump on her best friend's bed. Being able to hear his soft breathing as he snoozed so close to her. Being able to reach over and touch her hand to him. Closing her eyes and imagining she could even hear the relaxed, sleepy beat of his heart in his chest. All of that made being frightened seem impossible.

She wasn't alone with the storm. She had Kotaro, and he was special. Special in general, and special to her.

* * *

Hours later, no one bothered to wake up as the front door was opened and slammed shut.

She stood in the middle of the dorm, water pouring off of her to the floor, trembling with rage and gritting her teeth. She turned to face her younger classmates room, and growled, before moving with single minded purpose and emotion towards the bedroom door._ 'He will pay!'_

And then just before she was about to burst in and attack him, Ayaka's hand stopped on the handle. She sighed as her anger melted away, and let it fall to her side. Instead the blonde girl returned to her room and began changing into some warm dry nightclothes.

The class president knew she was considered a selfish girl, and occasionally even a cruel girl. She knew this was because it was often true. But even she had no reason to want to get in the way of Natsumi and Kotaro's new relationship, no matter how early it was. Going in there and beating him senseless would really only ruin what for Natsumi had probably been a pretty good night. And she had empathy towards the young red-head - she truly did - and not just because her crush was as young as hers. Just like Negi had so so many girls in his life so did Kotaro. True, there were less – that was because Kotaro was Kotaro and Negi was Negi. Of course the annoying mutt wouldn't have gained as many female friends.

But there were still a lot.

First, and most important was Chizuru. Natsumi's best friend for years, the only woman Ayaka had ever met whom she would admit that perhaps – just perhaps – she considered more attractive than she herself was. And Ayaka was not blind, she saw how Kotaro looked at the older girl. There was admiration and loyalty and not a small bit of fear in his eyes when he saw her. If that wasn't a crush at some level at least, then Ayaka would eat her own shoes.

Natsumi would never ever try to go against her. It was as simple as that. If Chizuru wanted Kotaro, she would take him and Natsumi would sit and watch and try to pretend everything was alright. After all, there was a reason that the little actress had chosen a time when her best friend was away before trying to do anything with her so-called 'brother'. And what was worse was Ayaka could see the interest from Chizuru with ease. There was flirtation between them, and if it turned out to be serious then she had to doubt little Natsumi's chances.

But that wasn't even all. There was also Kaede. An equally mature-bodied girl who's interest Ayaka did not yet fully understand. It might be maternal or maybe romantic. But it was there, and just like with his his pseudo-mother figure Kotaro gave Kaede those emotion filled stares too. And that was just when they were around, perhaps their relationship was even stronger without spectators? For all Ayaka knew the young boy might care even more for her than he did Chizuru. It could certainly explain why he was always so eager to go on those long extended camping trips with her.

Ayaka smiled despite herself, such an elegant thing the camping trip. If only she could have gotten Negi early then perhaps she could have managed it with him. If she tried it now the whole thing would turn into a group affair.

And speaking of the group affair there were also the rest of Kaede's walking club. Fuuka and Fumika were hardly the seductresses the other examples were, but they looked and acted Kotaro's age at least and they also went on those camping trips. What's more they seemed to like him, coming over every so often either separately or together – often to do nothing more than pull on those strange decorations he wore. True, he would chase them and call them pests as he did it, but he would also smile and play games with them too, mostly variations on 'Catch-the-fast-annoying-midgets'.

And when they did the blonde beauty noticed that Natsumi would often just stay quiet and out of their way, not wanting to get involved at all. And if her petite friend could let a couple of flat chested little girls take her crush's attention away from her then she was definitely going to have a hard time dealing with the real competition.

All this wasn't even mentioning that exchange student, the one Kotaro had apparently fought in the Mahora tournament. Not that Ayaka knew much about her, but she knew from Chizuru that the girl was about Natsumi's body shape and also blushed whenever he so much as spoke to her. And all of these girls were just the ones she knew about, it wasn't like she actively tried to keep up with the brat's day-to-day life. Who knew who else was interested in their violent little boy.

It occurred to Ayaka that Natsumi was really not well suited for any sort of competition- love or otherwise. She was shy and unsure of herself and honestly, somewhat self-loathing too. If you asked her just generally about vague things she disliked, the first answers you'd likely get were freckles and red-hair. Worse though, instead of talking to people and seeking comfort she usually just tried to hold all her problems and insecurities inside of herself, and that did nothing more than reinforce and focus her troubles inwards and make everything worse.

But there was hope there somewhere. Kotaro did not only look at Chizuru and Kaede with something strange in his eyes. Ayaka had seen the way he looked at Natsumi too. He cared about her, he wanted to protect her from everything – he actually seemed a little possessive of her. And that was promising.

Ayaka sighed. On some level she knew that not everything could go right for people all the time, and that even if you helped someone there would come a time where they would simply need to gain the courage to make a move or move aside so someone who already had it could try. But if Natsumi didn't get far enough into this relationship before Chizuru came back she simply didn't have any chance at all. The class president seriously doubted she would try to continue this with her best friend around to watch.

_'Oh well...' _Ayaka thought to herself, shrugging. _'I suppose i'll just have to help them along.' _

The heir to the extensive Yukihiro fortune had many, many downsides. Stupidity was not one of them.

It didn't take long for her to figure out a plan that was both massively advantageous to Natsumi, and still decently vindictive to the bratty horror that had forced her to run all the way to Library Island in a dangerous thunderstorm.

* * *

Natsumi woke up when the screaming started. Sitting up as fast as a rocket it took her a good few seconds to figure out what was happening in her bedroom.

On Chizuru's bed was what looked like a big squirming sack of damp cloth – and it was shouting swears at the top of its lungs. Next to it stood the class president in her nightclothes, holding an empty bucket in her hands.

The taller girl seemed to notice she was awake and turned to smile at her. "Sorry to wake you Natsumi-chan, just getting my revenge." Her voice was absolutely clear of any malice or anger, until she turned back to the cursing... thing on the other bed. "Do you hear that you brat! I had to run for an hour in a thunderstorm because of you!" She shouted, and slowly Natsumi realised that the sack was in fact constructed of Chizuru's bedsheets pulled up and tied together with something that looked like a piece of clothes line.

At the same time Natsumi figured out that the massively aggressive obscene swears were coming from Kotaro, and the innocent girl immediately turned scarlet. She didn't even _know_ some of the terms she was hearing.

"Such a filthy mouth." Ayaka seemed to think aloud, before picking up another bucket from the floor – and Natsumi could see now it was bucket full of water and ice. "Little boys should be polite!"

"Iincho! Wait!" From her bed the redhead watched as it was poured on the struggling boy, who's shouts were immediately doubled.

"Right. I think that's about done." The tall blonde girl turned to her and smiled. "Make sure you make the most of this Natsumi-chan." She winked at her, and the smaller teen got the idea that she was missing something. "I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean in a bit. Oh, and don't worry about the mess. I'll take care of it all in the morning."

"Wha?" The petite actress just stared as Ayaka ran out as fast as she could, a slam from the other side of the dormitory indicating she had returned to her bedroom. Natsumi wondered if she would have been so quick to return to her room if she knew Kotaro could have put his arm through the door without thought – lock or not.

Seemingly he had had the same thought as her, because at that moment a clawed hand shot out from the sack and began tearing a hole big enough for the occupant to escape.

Natsumi squeaked as a growling, soaking wet, shivering head poked out from the improvised prison.

"_That bitch!_" He roared at the top of his lungs, murder in his eyes. The younger boy climbed out of the sack and stood in the middle of the room, his clothes clinging to him and his body shaking with cold. "I'll kill her!" He started making for the door, leaving wet footprints behind him.

"Kota-kun..." She only said his name quietly, but immediately his head whipped around to look at her and she recoiled on instinct, frightened and intimidated by his stare.

Kotaro's expression rage melted away in seconds – leaving nothing more than guilt and chattering teeth.

"Sorry Nee-chan..." His ears went flat with shame as he saw how much he had frightened her. "I'm supposed to be making you feel better, not scaring you."

"T-That's alright Kotaro-kun... I don't mind if you're angry. But you played a trick on Iincho first..." Not that she supported the retribution, and honestly her classmate should have thought about everything before blindly believing Kotaro's lies, but walking around in a thunderstorm was dangerous. Not to mention – to her at least – probably the single most terrifying idea she had ever heard of.

"I'm not gonna get revenge for this am I?" He sighed.

"I'd rather you didn't... but if you apologize to Iincho then I think she'll apologize back."

"Alright, but in the morning. I don't want to her see me like this." He gestured down to his soaked, shivering body. "I'm gonna go into the shower quickly, kay?"

"Alright." She nodded. "Leave your wet things outside the door and I'll bring you some dry things in a minute alright?"

"Kay, thanks Nee-chan." He grinned at her happily before walking out of the room, removing his clothes as he went.

Once he was gone, the redhead quickly got up and closed the door behind him, still not entirely sure about whether or not to put on something else over the lingerie she was wearing. Showing off before had felt good, but she still didn't feel entirely comfortable being like this for long periods of time. She enjoyed being ogled by Kotaro... more than a lot. But the idea of him staring at her body just made her feel so self-conscious it was hard to act normal around him.

_'Maybe just a loose shirt to wear over the top...'_ She thought to herself. _'Just long enough to pull down if I get embarrassed...' _Nodding to herself, the small teenage girl opened the larger of the bedrooms two cupboards, the one that contained her clothes and the small amount of clothes that Kotaro had. Then she stared, because it was empty. She couldn't put her own clothes on, and she couldn't even borrow one of Kotaro's shirts either.

Well, it wasn't entirely empty. There was a piece of paper on the bottom with the word 'NO!' written on one side, and: 'I've taken Chizuru's too' on the other.

A few seconds later Ayaka heard banging on her door.

"Iincho!" Natsumi whined. "Please give them back!" The door opened for the briefest of seconds and an immaculately manicured hand shot out, pulling her inside in a second before the door slammed shut again.

In the darkened room a wide-eyed Natsumi looked up pathetically at her taller room-mate.

"Natsumi-chan, when it comes to relationships you are a coward." Ayaka told her, plainly and matter-of-factly, but somehow not unkindly. "So I am going to make sure you're put into a situation you cannot possibly back out of. First of all, by ruining his bed so you share, and second by making sure you don't put anything over that." She gestured up and down Natsumi's body.

"But Kotaro-kun doesn't have any spare clothes anymore!" The little red-head wailed. "He's gonna be _nude_!"

"Oh yeah... didn't think of that." Ayaka thought aloud. "Oh well, wont that just make things better for you?"

"No!" Natsumi said in the loudest hushed voice she could handle. "I'm not ready for that sort of thing yet!"

Ayaka sighed. "Alright, I'll let you have one piece of underwear. Tell him I forgot to take it or something." She handed a pair of white boxer shorts to her, and Natsumi took them thankfully. "But maybe in return I should take a piece of yours." The class president pretended to be earnestly thinking about it.

"What?" Natsumi squeaked.

"Like your bra I think."

"What?"

"Well, that'd help wouldn't it? Guys like breasts." Ayaka grinned at her, reaching forwards. Natsumi was out of the door before she could even touch her, leaving Ayaka to laugh and lock the door again. Having them sleep together would have to help their relationship, and maybe Natsumi would even be able to kiss him or something.

Natsumi had left Kotaro's underwear by the bathroom door and retreated back into her own room, once again hiding underneath the covers – pulling the bedsheets right up to her face. Ayaka's words were coming back to her as she looked at the thoroughly soaked bed on the other side of the room – completely unusable now.

Could she? Could she really do something like that. Invite her crush into her bed when she was wearing... _this. _Not to mention when all he would be wearing was... oh.

Kotaro entered the room, dripping wet and smiling.

"Hey Natsumi-neechan. There was only this outside the door."

She stared at him from beneath the bed covers, recalling that wet fabric had a tendency to cling.

_'Isn't it supposed to be smaller?'_

"Nee-chan?"

"Wha?" She blushed and shook her head, trying to keep her gaze above his waist and disgusted at herself for finding it difficult. "Oh um... Iincho took all our clothes as revenge... she just left that one behind so you wouldn't have to be nude..." _'He's a little boy. He's a little boy. He's a little boy! He's a little... he isn't! Little boys don't have six-packs! Or such good, strong looking arms... and they don't bulge like that there!" _He was too young for puberty wasn't he? She was a good four years on him at least and she had barely even started! He was only supposed to be a year or so older than her teacher at best, at worst he was the same age. Maybe it was because he was a demon? That had to mess with the whole thing didn't it?

"Wow. She really must be pissed at me." Kotaro thought aloud, completely oblivious to the internal struggle going on just a few metres away inside the terrifying battleground of a teenage girls mind. "Do you want me to go get them back?"

"Um... no... better not. Iincho locked the door and you'd have to break it to get them. She said she'd give them back in the morning though..."

"Oh, alright." Kotaro frowned as he looked at her closely. "Hey Natsumi-neechan, are you feeling alright? Ya look all red." It didn't help that she was hiding beneath the blankets, but he just assumed that was a girl thing. Besides, she seemed kind of embarrassed having him see her in those clothes. Though he had to admit, he really enjoyed the sight.

Kotaro thought all of the people he lived with were pretty. Actually, he couldn't think of any girl he was close to he didn't think was good looking. He'd even grudgingly admit that the twins were cute, if a little annoying sometimes. But he didn't usually find himself actively wanting to see more of them. The only comparable situations were when he had to take a bath with Chizuru or help bandage one of Kaede's wounds. But then they were usually naked and how could he not want to look? It wasn't like it made him less of a man to be a little bit interested in girls. Not that he'd admit that out loud – if Negi found out he'd never live it down.

But he couldn't remember ever really looking at someone who was still wearing clothes like that. And he really wanted to look at Natsumi more. He even kinda wanted to see what she looked like without them, though he had made sure not to try in the bath. After all, there wasn't a problem with most of the other girls he knew, they either seemed to want him to look or just didn't care. Natsumi on the other hand seemed terrified he'd see her naked, and he wasn't going to try if she got that upset over it.

Not that he really understood why anyone could be embarrassed of themselves naked. Or why some people would and some people wouldn't be. But as with most things, he just marked it down to weird human habits and let it be. It was easier that way.

"I-I'm fine Kota-kun..." His attention was brought back by her answer quickly enough for him to realise she didn't sound entirely truthful. She didn't sound afraid or sad or anything, but she didn't sound comfortable either.

"Oh, it's because of the bed right?" He felt proud when she smiled weakly and nodded agreement. He was getting better at guessing people's feelings – or at least at understanding Natsumi.

"I've never shared a bed with a boy..." The young girl mumbled, immediately regretting her own words. It was just a big blinking sign telling him how she thought about him, as a possible partner instead of as her adopted little brother. Which was how she thought their relationship was _supposed_ to be.

"That's fine Natsumi-neechan, I'll just sleep on the floor next to your bed."

"But won't that be uncomfortable?" He couldn't just go to sleep on the floor could he? Especially not wearing so little.

"I'll be fine, really." He smiled at her again, but she didn't look happy.

"No." He looked up at her curiously and Natsumi tried to return a confident look although it didn't quite work. Natsumi felt light-headed and she was sure she could feel her heart stuck in her throat, but she said it anyway. "J-Just hurry up and get into bed Kotaro-kun..."

And then, though her entire upper body had gone strawberry pink and she was sure she was trembling, the petite, embarrassed, flushed young woman moved up on the bed and pulled open the covers for him.

"I don't really need to have a bed y'know..." He was blushing heavily too and she realised this meant maybe he wasn't the only one who wasn't thinking of the other as a sibling. If he just saw her as his adopted sister, he wouldn't be embarrassed at all would he?

"I'd like you to share it Kota-kun..." She told him, having never ever said anything more truthful in her life. Sure, the idea terrified her and made her feel guilty about herself. She wasn't sure if it was right, and she certainly wouldn't want anyone else to know they'd done it. But she still wanted to.

He nodded and got inside, giving her a brief, slightly awkward smile as he lay down next to her.

They stared one another in the eyes for a few minutes, both red as one another, before agreeing to turn and face the other way to sleep. But despite this, Natsumi still made sure to seek out his hand underneath the covers and touched it gently, holding it in hers and smiling widely when he returned the gesture without hesitation.

And before the young girl fell asleep she allowed herself to feel a little proud, because she was sure that this was not something a coward would have done.

* * *

Another chapter finished! I actually noticed I made a mistake in my last one, I had Ayaka amazed at Kotaro and Negi being fighters last chapter but I designed this to be set after the Mahora festival – just before they go to the magical world. Ayaka was clearly present for Negi's last match and probably at least heard of some of the others, especially since both Natsumi and Chizuru saw them all.

I've corrected that now, but it goes to show what happens when you don't pay attention.

So now I've finished this chapter I will be tied up in my Lucky Star work for a little while, so it may be another wait for you guys. But don't worry, I plan another great chapter! And to anyone who is waiting, my profile is regularly updated with how far I've gotten on chapters and other news about my writing.


	5. Don't Hide Your Body

"Wow. Just Wow."

"O-Oh my..."

"Hehe. Looks like she didn't need our help after all."

"Haruna, I think we should we leave."

"What? Why?"

"Because we're intruding on a deeply intimate moment?"

"But its also really hot."

"That's it, come on Nodoka."

"O-Okay..."

"Oh no. You two aren't going anywhere. You could learn a lot from her."

"Like what?"

"Well she got her crush into bed within a few days."

It was at this point Natsumi finally decided to open her eyes.

"Oh, and she's woken up."

She looked up into Haruna's grinning face as the taller girl leant over her. For a few seconds she was too sleepy to give it much care, simply rubbing at her eyes in the painful morning light. Then after a few seconds of rapid contemplation she shrieked and pulled the bed covers up to her face, blushing wildly as she realised she was still wearing her lingerie. Then she blushed even more when she realised Kotaro was lying in bed right next to her.

In fact, that wasn't totally true. He wasn't so much lying beside her as he was lying partly on her, using her breast as a pillow. And he was pretty much nude.

"Huh?" He woke up with a yawn and sat up in the bed, looking at the three extra girls in the room with no expression on his face other than sleepiness. "Oh, its you guys. Morning."

"G-Good morning Kotaro-kun." Nodoka replied on automatic, out of politeness. Yue and Haruna both remained silent, Yue because she couldn't think of anything else to say, Haruna more because she couldn't decide which innuendo to go with.

"I'm guessing they want you Natsumi-chan." He said as he faced the bright red girl he was sharing the bed with. "I'm gonna go for a morning walk, kay?"

"Y-Yeah..." Natsumi told him. She was thankful he was so calm about this, it helped make her feel calm too. Of course, she knew they'd done absolutely nothing wrong – but it felt like they had. To her at least. "Um... have fun."

"Will do." He answered. The question of how he would do it without his clothes on died on her lips as a large black dog – more of a wolf actually – walked out of the room. She watched him every step of the way with an expression of wonder. She knew Kotaro could do that, when they'd first met him he'd been a puppy after all. Since he had explained magic to her shortly after the Mahora tournament he had made no secret of his alternate form – often leaving or entering the apartment in it – and she knew he had a few more of them hidden away too. But she had never thought to ask him to let her see him change, mostly because she knew he had to be naked to avoid ruining good clothes.

It was amazing. Admittedly, for magic it seemed to lack a little razzle-dazzle, one minute there was a boy and the next there was a dog. There were no flashes of light or anything, one just became the other very quickly – the time spent shifting between the shapes only a few seconds at most. Still, it really was amazing to see him change in and out of forms as easily as someone put on clothes. Though she really preferred the cute little puppy to the coarse, fierce looking wolf-form he seemed to favour.

Both Nodoka and Yue stepped aside with only mild surprise, giving him a way out of the room. Haruna didn't, instead sinking to her knees and pulling Kotaro in with her arms to start scratching his ears.

Kotaro cocked his head into the touch like any other dog would have, allowing the tall girl free reign over him in a way that made a tight little ball of anger appear in Natsumi's stomach before she could even try to prevent it. Haruna only stopped when she looked up and saw the red-head scowling at her, grinning for a second before letting go and standing aside for the large canine.

Wolf-Kotaro made a little snuffling sound to them which really could have meant anything in dog for all they knew. He certainly didn't seem angry or embarrassed at any rate. Then he simply continued on his way, leaving to do whatever it was he did on his walks.

Yue closed the door behind him as he went and they waited until they heard the front door open and close – presumably Kotaro had changed back for long enough to do that. Hopefully no one had seen the half naked boy leaving the apartment. That would raise eyebrows.

"So," Haruna announced, immediately shattering the quiet awkwardness and filling it with some loud, energetic awkwardness instead. "You moved fast didn't you? I'm kind of proud..."

Natsumi groaned and pulled the covers back over her head. It was too early in the morning for this and she wanted more sleep.

* * *

Everything had gone far, far less painfully than Natsumi imagined it would have. Yue had offered to retrieve her clothes from Ayaka, who had left them on her bed with a note when she had gone out to pursue Negi for the day – presumably getting up early enough that she could sneak up on him in bed. Natsumi had been glad about that. It was nice to have a little proof for her story, the only other thing she had was a drying mattress that had apparently been stripped bare before she had been woken. With her luck Haruna would have been spreading rumours about her wetting herself at night if that had been all there was to go on.

Things only looked up when they left the room to let her dress in private. Meaning Natsumi was quickly able to hide the lingerie in the laundry hamper before getting into some real clothes – and already the day was going better than she had expected.

Of course, that left her staring at her bedroom door feeling too nervous to go out. What did they want this time? Admittedly, she quite liked the three other girls. They had always been nice to her in class and Nodoka and Yue at least were pleasantly normal sized in the body department. But Haruna was with them and the young actress somehow doubted the more mature-bodied girl had just called in for an innocent visit.

She sighed and opened the door to go out. What was the very worst they could do?

Three heads turned to her as she entered the living area. Nodoka and Yue looking quite normal, Haruna holding a wide grin – though for her that was pretty normal too.

"Relax." Yue immediately told her, noticing her friends expression. "We're not here to torture you or anything."

"That's nice to know." Natsumi replied as she sat down next to Haruna, wishing the other girls hadn't taken the other chairs and trapped her next to the pervert. "What about you?" She asked the manga artist.

"Nope." The girl shook her head. "That's just a side-goal. For now we just wanted to come along and see how you two did after you left. Didn't think it would go this far though..."

Natsumi blushed. "I explained that." She huffed. "We didn't do anything."

"So Kotaro managed to get you into bed and he didn't even need to buy you dinner first?" Haruna smirked.

"Nothing happened!" The redhead shouted, puffing out her cheeks in pint-sized fury.

"Stop teasing her Haruna." Yue told her friend flatly – though even she was blushing at the comment - getting a stuck out tongue and a wink in return. "We came because I looked up information on Dog Hanyou, and we thought you should see it."

"It was Haruna's idea..." Nodoka murmured quietly.

"Really?" Natsumi asked surprised, mostly because the goal seemed so... innocent.

"Not all my ideas are evil you know." The artist grinned happily, guessing her thoughts easily. "Some of them just lead to evil..." She continued with a smirk. "Besides, its important to learn everything you can about a crush before you begin trying to date them properly. And since you know pretty much nothing about Kotaro, I figured you needed help filling in the gaps."

"Well that makes sense I guess..." Natsumi agreed. "Um... thanks."

"Don't worry, she'll get back to her old torturing self in no time at all, then you wont need to thank her." Yue sighed before bringing out her card. "Adeate!" In a flash of altogether more... magicky magic than Natsumi had seen from Kotaro a book appeared in her hands, the same one she had seen her with a few days earlier. Instead of flicking through it or looking for a bookmark though the young philosopher simply opened it and laid it out on the table between them. Almost immediately – as if it knew precisely where it was – the artefact became less of an actual book and more of a projector, glowing words and pictures suddenly floating in front of their eyes as text began to come up.

"This is really an amazing artefact too." Natsumi commented. She'd already seen yesterday, but at the time she'd had far more interesting things in her sights than a book – magic or not.

"Thanks." Yue nodded at her. "It isn't really useful in combat, but I don't mind that much. It lets me get information on pretty much anything, its hooked up to the Mage version of the internet."

"You mean there's another internet powered by magic?" The redhead asked, barely believing it.

"Oh, that isn't the weirdest thing." Haruna told her. "We had to kiss Negi-sensei before we got our powers."

"You had to kiss him?" Natsumi turned scarlet immediately. "A-All of you?"

"And about half the class on top of that. Yep." Haruna continued.

"B-But how does that even work?"The actress questioned, stuttering. "If magic is all circles and special words, wouldn't you have to put more work into making something activate with a kiss?"

"Just don't question it." Yue advised flatly. "I've been trying to approach magic like a science, but so far it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. I think its one of those things where you have to understand every tiny little thing before you even begin to get it properly. In the end I just decided to learn how to use it before I figure out exactly how it works."

"That's probably smart." Haruna agreed with a nod.

"Yeah... I try not to worry about how my artefact works." Nodoka added. "It always makes me worry people might be listening in on my thoughts somehow."

"Huh. Creepy." The artist mused aloud.

"Not to you, the only things you ever keep secret are tricks you plan to play on us." Yue pointed out as she began directing her book to the information she wanted.

"Yeah, someone like poor innocent Natsumi has more to hide from that." Haruna laughed.

"I-I do not!"

"Oh?" Haruna crooned. "Then tell us exactly what you want to do with Kotaro then."

"N-Nothing!" The girl flushed.

"See? That's obviously a lie. But Nodoka's book would even give us doodles of the action."

They all paused as they considered that.

"Hey Honya, can I borrow-"

"No. You cannot." Yue interrupted before Nodoka could answer, since she knew full well her best friend had a hard time saying no to anyone.

"Spoil sport." Haruna shot back, though she was smiling as always.

"I wouldn't do that anyway..." Nodoka attempted to protest, though everyone present knew pretty well she'd eventually give in to Haruna's demands.

"Can we please concentrate on what we came here to do?" Yue asked as new text and pictures began to fill what passed for the book's screen, even if it was floating in the air in front of them.

"What does it say?" Natsumi asked after staring at the articles for a while. "I cant read it."

"That's because this is from the magic world, not this one. Apparently they speak Latin over there." Yue explained.

"You can all read Latin?"

"Pfft. No." Haruna laughed.

"A little bit, I'm getting better since Negi-sensei began helping me." Nodoka blushed.

"Of course I do." Yue told her matter of factly, without any show of smugness. "I'll just translate the things you need."

"Thank you. But where does it come from? An online encyclopedia or something?" Natsumi asked.

"Huh. Good question." Haruna agreed, realising she hadn't asked.

"It's... not really important." Yue answered, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Why not?" Haruna returned curiously.

"Y-Yeah, just an information website." The young librarian answered, sounding nervous. Beside her Nodoka's lips were moving silently and her brow furrowed in concentration. It wasn't difficult for Paru to figure out she was trying to translate the words for herself using what Negi had been helping her with. Then when she began blushing the more mature bodied girl knew something had to be wrong. "Alright Nodoka. Tell me what it says."

"Um... I-I think it says um... that is it's... um... a..." The girl mumbled continuously, playing with her hands and looking away ashamed.

"Oh for the love of..." Yue shook her head, her stoic personality completely betrayed by her flushed skin. "The article is called 'The Girl's Guide to Hanyou Lovemaking – Canine Edition' alright?" She snapped at the older looking girl – whose expression now contained a smile so wide it was threatening to burst from her face and escape. "Its like a pamphlet thing from a women's magazine and its the best I could find in such a short time."

"S-So I'm going to be taking dating advice from a sex guide?" Natsumi asked, hoping that Ayaka never found any of this out.

"What's the problem?" Haruna asked. "I mean, its gonna end up there anyway."

"S-Shut up!"

"It looks like a legitimate article, so maybe it won't be so bad?" Nodoka suggested.

"Yeah, this is probably what teen girls read in the magic world all the time." Haruna agreed. "Yknow. Which colour robes you must need, how to get your hair pointed up enough, sexing up aggressive half-demons. Oh don't give me that look Yue. Just start already." She said in response to the frown she was getting form her friend.

"Fine." She sighed irritably. "Congratulations on deciding to pursue a relationship with one of the Canine tribe... this guide is written to inform... just know they are similar to normal men... ah here." She said, finishing her skim reading. "Important facts to take into account before starting a serious relationship. One, the child of a human and a full youkai is a Hanyou. The child of a Hanyou and a Human is always a Hanyou, the blood of the demon will never be diluted beyond half. This means you must be prepared to mother a half-demon as well as date one, should your relationship get that serious."

"C-Childbirth already?" Natsumi asked. "Isn't that a bit soon?"

"Yeah, they don't waste much time do they?" Haruna said.

"Well," Yue thought aloud. " That is an important thing to know. I mean, there's got to be a lot of problems with raising a half demon. You should know what you're getting into from the start."

"Yeah. I mean breastfeeding's gotta be a bitch for a start." Haruna laughed.

"W-Why?" Nodoka asked confused.

"Cause babies tend to bite." The artist answered simply. Suddenly every one of them was getting vivid memories of exactly what kind of teeth Kotaro was in possession.

"Ouch..." They said almost as one.

"Two, it should be made aware that young canine Hanyou are incapable of shifting out of their animal form for the first four months of their lives?" Yue's eyes went wide.

"Y-You mean you'd be giving birth to a puppy?" Even Haruna was shocked.

"Though thankfully the number of offspring mimics humans rather than canines, so a full litter is highly unlikely..." Yue continued.

"Wow Natsumi. At least you know for a fact your baby is gonna be cute." Haruna smirked. "With big puppy dog eyes too." She laughed. "Though the breastfeeding thing comes back into mind..."

This time they all actively tried not to imagine Natsumi nursing a litter of little black puppies.

It didn't work.

"I-I... um..." She looked down at her stomach and tried to imagine what she'd even look like pregnant, let alone pregnant with a demon puppy. She had fantasised a little about a possible future with Kotaro, but that was mostly just wondering what her wedding ceremony might be like with him. Apart from that most of her fantasies involved nothing further than a situation where he'd actually agree to be her boyfriend. Certainly she'd never gotten far enough to consider any sort of family with him.

"A-Are you okay?" The young actress felt a timid hand touch hers and looked up to see Nodoka leaning over the book, smiling gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine... thank you." She replied. "Just a little overwhelmed. I've never really thought about being pregnant or anything..." She explained. "And... y'know. A puppy." She dead-panned. "That's just weird."

"Once you get over the shock I don't think its too bad..." Nodoka spoke up after a while.

"Yeah, I guess so." Haruna thought aloud. "I mean, when it comes down to it a puppy is probably smarter than most newborns. At least they can fetch you your slippers. Though you might have a problem with diapers..."

Natsumi wasn't quite sure whether to laugh or cry at that comment.

"I really don't think it's that important to think about this." Yue told her, bringing some level-headedness back to their world of fantasy. "Even if you did start going out then it's not as if you're gonna be sleeping with him the first chance you get." They all went silent as they remembered precisely what she had been doing, and Yue sighed. "You know what I mean. Even if you two did start going out it doesn't mean you're going to get kids any time soon."

"Yeah, this section did say its for serious relationships after all. Not high-school dating." Haruna pointed out, oddly altruistically. "This point probably wouldn't apply for you for another decade. Do you wanna just go onto the next one?"

Natsumi nodded, relieved to leave the topic behind. Though she couldn't help but wonder what Kotaro would be like if he was a father.

"Um... maybe you should look through and see if it has anything about teenage relationships?" Nodoka suggested. "That would probably be in another section..."

"Oh yeah. Good idea Nodoka." Yue nodded as she began moving the text down, skimming through the different chapter titles. "Lets see... Marriage ceremonies... common gifts... showing you're interested... p-positions and... love-bites?"

"I'm willing to bet that isn't the hickey sort of love bite." Haruna laughed, smirking at the timid redhead cowering next to her. "Oh get a thicker skin." She laughed at the shy girl.

"Wait. Here's something." Yue said. "Also that was a terrible joke. But here, 'Young relationships and puberty'."

"Perfect!" Natsumi smiled, glad they were getting back on track.

"Ahem," Yue began. "Like humans, most Hanyou have died of natural causes around age one hundred or so – though they tend to live slightly longer due to more active life styles and better healing abilities. However, unlike humans they grow into maturity far faster. A dog Hanyou is often typical pre-teen size by only a few years. This growth takes a short slower period before resuming, often allowing a rough adult size by around the mid teen years. Furthermore, like dogs and wolves, Hanyou puberty is more difficult to notice and occurs at a younger age." The philosopher girl read out.

"That explains how he managed to look after himself at least. He spent his baby years as a dog, and then spent the rest pretty much how he is now." Haruna deduced. "Also, pretty interesting for you Natsumi."

"W-Why?"

"Well for one," Yue answered instead. "Both you and Kotaro will look about the same age in around half a decade. Once you're twenty, he'll look about that anyway."

"R-Really?" Natsumi barely believed it. Something going this right for her was pretty unusual, she didn't really trust it to be true. But if it was, that meant dating would be a lot more awkward. Especially since Kotaro was apparently going to go through one hell of a growth spurt. And she had seen adult Kotaro. He was already handsome, but adult Kotaro was tall dark and handsome.

"That explains why he's so different to Negi even though they're near the same age." Haruna mused. "He's probably already in puberty or something."

"Do you think so?" The redhead asked. It would make her feel a lot less like a pedophile if she knew Kotaro was actually becoming a man.

"H-how do we tell?" Nodoka asked her friend.

"Hang on." Yue began reading again. "Typical puberty for Hanyou can begin as early as five years old in males. Ugh... I didn't need to picture that..."

The rest of them nodded, looking sympathetic.

"Um... But this is an early extreme and there is no fixed age wherein this occurs, other than generally before age thirteen. Hanyou of all types completely lack the hair that usually forms in puberty, facial and body included. Early stages of puberty must be confirmed by the presence of breasts or enlarged genitalia." She finished, looking flushed.

"One." Haruna began. "That's hilarious. Two. Now I know Setsuna is naturally bald down there, still hilarious although im also kinda jealous. Three. Who's gonna go check Kotaro's junk and see if he's ready for mating?"

"H-Haruna!" Yue shouted. Her friend was really going out of control here.

"So is that you volunteering Yue?"

"No!"

"Y-You mean the only way I can tell if Kotaro is becoming a man is to look at his..." Natsumi couldn't finish.

"Manhood?" Haruna suggested, smirking. "Lollipop? Baby-maker? Wang? Man-banana?"

"Shut up!" Yue yelled as beside her Nodoka was sinking into her chair trying to imagine she was somewhere else.

"...Cream shooter?"

It was at this point Yue lifted her book from the desk and hurled it at her friend's head.

"Alright _maybe_ I deserved that." Came the voice from the floor.

"Haruna, you can be a real pain sometimes." Yue told her gruffly, though she honestly felt bad for resorting to violence so easily.

"Alright alright." She got up, sporting a fairly painful looking mark on her forehead. "We can all act like a adults here." She turned to Natsumi. "You've never looked at it right?"

"N-No!" The redhead said on automatic.

"Oh like that was going to work." Yue said.

"I mean... not properly..." Natsumi continued, a certain memory sneaking up on her and making her cheeks burn.

"Hang on, we might have something yet!" The artist smiled.

"Well... when he got out of the shower last night..."

"Yeah?"

"He was only wearing his boxer shorts... and the water kind of made it all... stick."

"Oh dead gods..." Yue pinched the bridge of her nose, hardly able to believe she'd been pulled into this. Beside her Nodoka was blushing hard, but still noticeably paying attention. Taking a little guilty pleasure in listening.

"How big?"

"Pretty... bulgy." Natsumi told her, feeling utterly ashamed to admit she had been looking.

"Alright... well that's a start." Haruna thought aloud, not even making fun of the little actress – to the surprise of all. "Y'know, it might not even be important. I'm thinking all that muscle has gotta mean puberty soon. Maybe we should just concentrate on getting you a date with him?"

With that the door opened, and Kotaro wandered confidently in – barefooted, but still wearing clothes.

"Back from my walk!" He called as he entered, before noticing they were all in the main-room.

"Kotaro-kun? Where did you get those clothes?" Natsumi asked, trying to give him a question to distract him while she focused on being less flushed. Discussing all that stuff had been bad enough, now he was right in front of her only a few seconds after they had been discussing his... penis at length. That was not making her feel comfortable.

"Borrowed off Negi." He answered. "Did we get ours back from Ayaka-neechan?"

"Y-Yeah, I put them all back in the wardrobe."

"Thanks," He nodded at her. "I'm gonna go change into my own stuff and I can give these back to Negi next time I see him." He told her as he entered the room to change into normal clothing, closing the door behind him.

"So..." Haruna began. "Are you gonna go in or not?"

"Wha-!" Natsumi started hotly.

"Quiet!" The girl told her in a hushed whisper.

"I-Im not gonna go in there like that!" She replied in the same kind of voice.

"Haruna, even for you that's wrong." Yue sighed.

"H-How would you like it if someone walked in on you changing?" Nodoka stuttered.

"Oh come on. He's a boy. He's not gonna mind if you see him nude."

"That isn't how it works." Yue said.

"Then should I go in?" Haruna asked, getting up and walking to the door. "I could do it," She whispered to them. "Not hard."

"N-No!" Natsumi jumped up at the more mature girl, trying to pull her away from Kotaro's door.

"Hehe... suuure?" She laughed.

"Yes!" Natsumi shouted.

The door opened.

"What the heck are you two doing?" Kotaro asked, cocking his head to the side.

Both of them looked down on automatic.

"Um..." Haruna tailed off. Beside her Natsumi felt her legs becoming weak. "You're very naked right now Kotaro." Haruna decided to point out. "Not really complaining, just making an observation."

"Kay..." He said, considering what to do about it. Not much, he didn't think. A lot of people got naked, just because Natsumi was afraid of people seeing her body didn't mean that he cared. Speaking of her though..."You alright Natsumi-neechan?" She looked pretty sickly.

"Y-Y-Yeah... I'm alright..." She stuttered, mouth dry and muscles shaky. Kotaro shrugged to himself and closed the door. He'd ask her later.

"Alright everyone. Knowledge attained!" Haruna announced to them once she had gotten the weakened actress back to the chairs. "Kotaro is definitely becoming a man. A very manly man." Beside her Natsumi had buried her blushing face in her hands and refused to look up. Right now she was trying to figure out if things had become better or worse with the involvement of the other girls. True, she had learnt a lot of things and seen something... good. But she also felt like everything was going a little fast, and that maybe the other girls were just a little bit too eager to have her date Kotaro. In Haruna's case it was probably just fun that motivated her, but for the others...

Yue's hand had yet to leave her forehead. "Alright, now we just need to figure out a way of getting him on a date with her."

Haruna smiled and got up with a determined look in her eyes. "Give me a few minutes with him, I'll get you that date Natsumi-chan." She smiled. "No worries."

"Um... okay but... um, can't you please wait until he's dressed first?"

* * *

Author Notations!

So, I've been having ideas for what my next Negima! Fiction will be. See, I only intended this Natsumi one to be a short affair, I doubt it will go on for more than another 2 chapters, possibly slightly more. But Negima! Is useful to me as a stress reliever and it flows fairly easily, so id like to do another one.

The idea for my next one is one I blatantly stole from my good friend Zokusho, who any Lucky Star fan knows wrote the hugely hilarious and vaguely naughty Truth or Dare series for LS. I think you can figure out where this is going.

Negi, Asuna, Haruna, Nodoka, Yue, Setsuna, Konoka and Kotaro trapped in a magical game of Truth or Dare.

Perversion! Humour! Romance! Perversion! Like seriously... lots.

I mean honestly, I think I'm gonna be outdoing myself this time. Anyways, if you have any particular dares you'd like them to perform then please PM me with your ideas. I can pretty much promise what you request will make it into the story, even if its amazingly perverted XD


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